A PRESSING CHALLENGE
Five ideas to help reduce burnout amongst staff without increasing payroll.
Smarter Scheduling, Not Longer Hours
One of the biggest drivers of burnout is inconsistent and unpredictable scheduling. Rather than increasing headcount, hotels can focus on improving how shifts are structured. Introducing rotas further in advance, reducing last-minute changes and ensuring fair distribution of weekends and late shifts can dramatically improve work-life balance. Where possible, offering flexible scheduling or shift-swapping systems empowers staff to manage their own time, leading to greater job satisfaction without additional cost.
Cross-Training to Reduce Pressure Points
Operational bottlenecks often place undue stress on specific teams or individuals. Cross-training staff across departments, such as front-of-house learning basic F&B support, or housekeeping understanding front desk pressures, creates a more agile workforce. This not only improves service continuity during busy periods but also reduces the burden on overstretched teams. As an added benefit, employees gain new skills and a clearer sense of career progression, which can boost engagement.
Prioritise Breaks and Recovery Time
In a fast-paced environment, breaks are often the first thing to be sacrificed, even though, consistently missing breaks leads to fatigue and decreased productivity. Encouraging a culture where taking full, uninterrupted breaks is the norm, not the exception, can have a meaningful impact. Simple operational tweaks, such as staggered break times or designated quiet staff areas, help ensure employees can properly recharge during their shifts.
Recognition and Communication Matter More Than Ever
Burnout is not only physical, but emotional. Feeling undervalued or unheard can accelerate disengagement. Regular recognition, whether through informal praise, team shout-outs or structured employee-of-the-month initiatives, costs little but delivers strong returns in morale. Equally important is open communication. Creating opportunities for staff to share feedback, concerns or ideas (and acting on them where possible) helps build trust and a sense of ownership within the team. Investing in effective HR practices can further strengthen these efforts and improve guest services in turn.
Streamline Processes to Remove Friction
Often, burnout is less about workload volume and more about unnecessary friction. Outdated systems, inefficient workflows or duplicated tasks can frustrate staff and waste energy. Reviewing daily operations through a staff-first lens, asking “what slows you down?”, can uncover quick wins. Whether it’s simplifying check-in procedures, improving housekeeping coordination or adopting user-friendly tech, small efficiencies can significantly reduce stress levels without increasing payroll.
BIDFOOD LOCKS PRICES ON ALMOST 200 PRODUCTS FOR FOUR MONTHS WITH LAUNCH OF PRICE WISE
Bidfood, one of the UK's leading foodservice providers, is launching Price Wise, a new publication designed to help operators save money and time, alongside a refreshed Marketplace, featuring stronger deals and more chef-led inspiration.
Available from September, Marketplace moves to a bi-monthly format, with stronger double-month deals, an improved shopping experience and fresh content to support menu planning. New features include ‘Focus Flavour’, highlighting seasonal ingredients and product recommendations, as well as industry insights, trends and chef-created recipes.
To make browsing simpler, Marketplace has also been redesigned with fewer adverts and a clearer route to shopping offers through Bidfood Direct.
Launching alongside Marketplace, Price Wise will run from September to December and feature almost 200 products on a four-month price lock, helping operators bring greater certainty to their food costs.
The publication also introduces Chef's Picks, where Bidfood's development chefs share practical tips on boosting margins, saving labour time, reducing waste and making products work harder across menus. Meanwhile, Smarter Swaps highlights cost-saving alternatives to leading brands, helping customers identify opportunities to reduce spend without compromising on quality.
Both publications will be available in print and as fully shoppable digital editions on Bidfood Direct.
Katie Sillars, Head of Commercial Growth Initiatives at Bidfood, said:
For many operators, the challenge isn't just managing rising costs, it's finding ways to continue supporting and inspiring customers while protecting already stretched margins. Every purchasing decision matters, and businesses need support that helps them work smarter, not just spend less.
We believe our role is to be more than a supplier. Through Marketplace and Price Wise, we're giving operators the insights, inspiration and value-led solutions they need to navigate today's challenges, plan with confidence and build more profitable businesses for the future.
This latest launch builds on Bidfood's wider commitment to backing operators through value-led initiatives, as well as its investment in training and efficiency resources for the industry.
For more information and to browse the latest editions of Marketplace and Price Wise, click here.
BRAKES OPENS APPLICATIONS FOR NEXT ROUND OF GET SET SUPPLY!
Brakes has reopened applications for its Get Set Supply! programme, inviting small and emerging suppliers to apply for the next cohort of the initiative designed to help SMEs enter the foodservice market and scale sustainably.
The programme offers successful applicants a structured 12‑month support package including mentoring, commercial guidance, sales colleague interaction, sampling opportunities and hands‑on help from Brakes’ merchandising and category teams. The aim is to give smaller producers a practical route into wholesale while bringing fresh ideas and distinctive products to Brakes customers.
Natalie Phillips, Head of Food Engagement at Brakes, said the programme is already proving its value to both suppliers and operators:
SMEs bring innovation, agility and real passion to foodservice. Get Set Supply! is about giving those businesses a platform and the support they need to grow. At the same time, it helps us introduce customers to products they might not otherwise see, including new flavours, new formats and suppliers with great stories behind them.
That impact is already visible through the first cohort. One of the earliest suppliers to be listed, Jodie Pell, co-founder of Junk Crisps, said the programme has accelerated her route into foodservice:
I spotted Get Set Supply! on LinkedIn and thought it looked like a great opportunity, but I didn’t expect it to open so many doors. The Brakes team has been super supportive. I’ve been given a mentor who’s helping me make the most of the opportunity, and it is amazing how many people I’ve already been able to get in front of. Seeing our Sweet Potato and Beetroot crisps reach foodservice customers is a huge step for us.
Her experience reflects the programme’s purpose: helping small producers gain traction in foodservice while giving operators access to new, distinctive products that add interest and variety to menus. This approach echoes other industry efforts such as Bidfood’s SME scheme, Open Doors, which similarly supports smaller producers.
Shortlisted applicants, after applications close on 16 October, will be invited to attend an innovation session as part of the final selection process. Successful suppliers will join a 12‑month support programme designed to help them grow within Brakes and across the wider foodservice sector.
WHY HOTELS ARE STUCK IN AI ‘PILOT PURGATORY’
By Michael McCartan, Area Vice President EMEA at IDeaS
Hotels are investing significant time and resources in artificial intelligence, yet many are still struggling to move from experimentation to widespread operational use.
The challenge facing many hotel groups today is no longer access to AI. It is developing enough confidence in the technology, data and governance behind it to allow AI to influence real commercial decisions at scale.
As a result, many organisations find themselves trapped in a form of "AI pilot purgatory", where teams are willing to test the technology and review its recommendations but remain hesitant to let it influence live commercial decisions.
The trust gap becomes particularly visible in revenue management, where changes to pricing, inventory or forecasting can have an immediate financial impact.
McKinsey's State of AI 2025 found that fewer than one-third of organisations have successfully scaled AI beyond the pilot stage. For hotels, the challenge is often not whether AI works. It is whether organisations trust it enough to become part of everyday decision-making.
COMMERCIAL DECISIONS RAISE THE STAKES FOR TRUST
Trust becomes more important as technology moves from providing insight to influencing decisions.
A revenue manager may be comfortable reviewing a recommendation generated by a system. Allowing that same system to automatically increase a rate, restrict lower-rated inventory or decline a piece of business requires a higher level of confidence in both the data and the decision-making process behind the recommendation.
Revenue management systems often reach conclusions that appear counterintuitive when viewed through a single data point such as current occupancy. A hotel may still have rooms to sell while forward demand, booking pace, length of stay and displacement indicators suggest that restricting lower-value business will produce a stronger commercial outcome.
Teams therefore need sufficient visibility into how a recommendation was reached, what factors influenced it and where human intervention remains appropriate. Trust develops through consistent performance, but it also depends on understanding.
Accuracy alone is not enough. Commercial teams are more willing to adopt automation when they can understand the factors that influenced a recommendation and communicate that reasoning across the business. Trust is strengthened when AI can be governed as well as measured.
DISCONNECTED SYSTEMS LIMIT WHAT AI CAN ACHIEVE
Technology is only as effective as the information available to it.
Hotels typically manage commercial data across a range of systems, including the PMS, CRS, RMS, CRM and distribution platforms. The quality of any automated recommendation depends heavily on how consistently those systems exchange information.
Disconnected data can limit what AI is able to achieve, while inconsistent reporting and definitions can cause different departments to make decisions using different versions of demand.
Siloed ways of working create additional challenges. Revenue teams may be reacting to booking pace, marketing teams may be focused on generating demand and sales teams may be pursuing group business, all while operating from different assumptions about future performance.
Introducing AI into that environment can increase the speed of activity without necessarily improving the quality of decisions if the information feeding those decisions remains incomplete or fragmented.
Applying AI to fragmented data does not simply risk producing a poor recommendation. When the wrong type of AI is paired with incomplete or disconnected information, organisations risk creating bad recommendations at scale.
Instead of eliminating manual inefficiency, they may simply replace it with automated error-making. Recommendations can be repeated confidently across room types, market segments and future arrival dates, multiplying the impact of flawed assumptions or incomplete inputs.
The danger is that the system may still appear to be working. Without the right architecture, monitoring and explainability, errors can remain hidden until they have already influenced a meaningful volume of commercial activity.
That is why hotels increasingly need to understand not only what data feeds an AI system, but also what form of AI is being used, where it sits within the decision process and how its recommendations can be evaluated and challenged.
HOTELS ARE STARTING TO ASK A DIFFERENT QUESTION
For several years, much of the hospitality industry's conversation around AI focused on whether technology providers offered AI capabilities.
Increasingly, however, hotel groups are asking a different question: how deeply does AI actually sit within the decision-making process?
The question matters because not all AI-enabled systems are designed in the same way. Some technologies use AI to summarise information, generate content or surface insights while core commercial recommendations continue to rely on predefined rules or manually maintained logic.
Others place machine learning at the centre of forecasting and optimisation, allowing models to continuously adapt as demand conditions change.
As hotels pursue greater automation and scalability, the underlying architecture becomes increasingly important. Trust is influenced not only by the quality of a recommendation but also by confidence that the decision process is consistent, explainable and embedded within the product itself.
This reflects a broader shift in how hospitality organisations evaluate AI. The question is no longer simply whether AI exists within a platform. Increasingly, buyers want to understand where AI sits within the decision process and whether it is capable of acting as part of the commercial decision engine itself.
HOTELS NEED TO MATCH THE TECHNOLOGY TO THE DECISION
The rapid growth of generative AI has created a tendency to discuss AI as a single category, even though different commercial challenges require different forms of intelligence.
Generative AI can support communication, interpretation and user interaction. Revenue management relies on mathematical forecasting and optimisation to estimate future demand and determine how pricing and inventory should respond.
A generative model predicts language. A revenue management system must forecast demand across future arrival dates and optimise commercial decisions based on those forecasts.
Mathematical AI can support the decision engine by collecting demand signals, forecasting future behaviour and optimising pricing and inventory. Generative AI can help users interpret and communicate recommendations, while agentic capabilities can support execution by carrying out approved actions within defined parameters.
The most effective commercial environments combine these capabilities within a single decision framework. Forecasts, recommendations, explanations and actions become more valuable when they work together as part of a connected system rather than as separate tools.
When the wrong type of AI is asked to solve the wrong problem, organisations risk creating confidence in outputs without improving the quality of the underlying decision.
The commercial value comes from creating a continuous process in which signals are collected, demand is forecast, controls are optimised, decisions are applied and future recommendations improve through ongoing learning.
HOTELS NEED TO DEFINE WHERE AUTOMATION STOPS
Trust also requires clear accountability.
Hotels need to establish which decisions can be automated, which circumstances require review and who remains responsible for outcomes.
Routine pricing adjustments may operate automatically within agreed parameters, while unusual demand shifts, major deviations from forecast or significant inventory decisions may warrant additional oversight.
Clear intervention points help teams understand where human judgement remains necessary and make it easier for automation to become part of everyday operations rather than remain confined to controlled pilot programmes.
Governance must also be supported by skills, training and adoption. Technology alone does not create confidence. Employees need to understand why systems are being introduced, what role automation will play and how decision-making responsibilities evolve as AI becomes more deeply embedded within commercial processes.
SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION STARTS WITH A SPECIFIC PROBLEM
Hotels can prolong pilot purgatory when AI initiatives begin with a broad ambition to adopt AI rather than a clearly defined business challenge.
A more effective starting point is usually a specific outcome, such as improving forecast accuracy, responding more quickly to changes in booking pace, reducing manual pricing activity or evaluating group opportunities more consistently.
Once the objective is clear, organisations can determine what data is required, which technologies are appropriate and how success will be measured. They can also establish the evidence needed to justify moving from experimentation into operational use.
Moving beyond pilot purgatory ultimately requires organisations to think about AI less as a technology project and more as an operating model.
The discussion is no longer simply whether AI can generate recommendations. The real question is whether organisations trust the underlying decision engine enough to embed those recommendations into everyday commercial processes.
When that happens, AI stops being an experiment and becomes part of how the business operates.
WHAT AFTER-HOURS BOOKING BEHAVIOUR TELLS US ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HOTEL ECOMMERCE
By Joe Watkins, Head of AI at Journey
There is a point each evening when most hotel commercial teams have finished for the day, but the same cannot be said of their guests, who are still researching weekends away, comparing rooms, considering spa treatments and deciding whether to add dinner, Champagne or another extra to their stay.
The data we see at Journey suggests that this behaviour is more commercially significant than hotels may realise. In 2025, almost a quarter of spa orders made through Journey-powered ecommerce were placed outside normal working hours, yet those bookings accounted for more than a third of revenue.
That matters because it suggests after-hours demand is not simply about convenience. Guests are not only continuing to browse and buy when hotel teams are offline; they are also generating a disproportionately high share of revenue.
For hotels, that raises an important question: if guests are ready to spend at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., is the digital experience ready to respond?
Hospitality demand does not follow a timetable
One of the most revealing things about ecommerce data is how little guest behaviour conforms to the traditional rhythms of hotel operations. People browse when they have time, make decisions when intent is highest and often complete purchases well outside the hours when a reservations, spa or commercial team would normally be available.
That demand is not confined to one time of day, or even one part of the week. Sunday was the most popular day for guests to make online table reservations, with 14,140 reservations placed, compared with 12,932 on Thursday.
The broader growth in digital transactions points in the same direction. Across Journey-powered ecommerce, revenue processed through the platform increased 16% from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026, while online orders and bookings rose 13%, from 110,315 to 125,402.
Spa bookings alone increased from 70,214 to 86,489 over the same period, a rise of roughly 23%, showing that guest appetite to research and purchase experiences online is continuing to grow.
Guests are willing to add more
The products guests add to their bookings are equally revealing because they show that the opportunity extends well beyond the initial reservation.
Guests are buying breakfast, spa access and treatments, but they are also adding Prosecco, Champagne, afternoon tea, chocolates, hampers, rose petals, robes, cocktails, spa products and treatment upgrades such as hot stones, LED masks and foot masks.
That behaviour has a measurable commercial impact. Revenue from spa and room extras increased by around 18%. In Q1 alone, extra revenue rose in 2025 by approximately 25%.
This is useful because it tells us guests are not necessarily resistant to spending more. The bigger question is whether the right option is being presented at the right moment, in a way that feels relevant to the stay they are planning.
A guest booking a spa break, for example, is likely to respond differently to a family booking during the school holidays, while someone arriving tomorrow may need very different prompts from somebody travelling in three months.
The next step is understanding intent
There is a tendency to reduce the hospitality AI conversation to chatbots or automated customer service, but the more valuable opportunity may be in helping hotels interpret behavioural signals and use them to merchandise more intelligently.
The goal should not be to place every possible extra in front of every guest. It should be to understand which products are most relevant at a particular point in the journey, based on factors such as timing, stay type, booking behaviour and the products that similar guests tend to purchase.
The data is beginning to show us not simply what guests buy, but when they are most receptive to buying it. Over time, AI can help hotels identify those patterns and move away from static lists of extras towards an ecommerce experience that responds more intelligently to intent and context.
There is still significant demand being lost
The opportunity becomes even clearer when conversion and abandonment are considered together.
In 2025, website-to-purchase conversion was 5.66%, rising to 8.72% for spa and 7.79% for rooms according to our data. At the same time, total checkout abandonment stood at 37.34%, with room checkout abandonment reaching 40%.
That gap matters. Guests are clearly willing to transact online, but a significant amount of intent still disappears before the purchase is completed.
The next phase of hotel ecommerce should therefore be less about simply putting more products online and more about understanding how people actually behave: when they buy, what they add, where they drop out and which offers are most likely to be useful at that moment.
The after-hours spa data offers a glimpse of why this matters. When almost a quarter of orders can account for more than a third of revenue, valuable demand is already arriving when many hotel teams are not available to capture it manually.
For hotels, the opportunity is to build an ecommerce experience that reflects how guests actually behave: always available, responsive to context and increasingly able to recognise when someone is most likely to buy.
ACTIVITY IS NOT ASSURANCE
Hospitality portfolios generate thousands of compliance actions a year. Most get logged, actioned, and closed. But the data reveals a harder truth: closing an action is not the same as controlling a risk.
An action can be marked complete without verification, without evidence, and without confirmation that the fix has held. That gap, between activity and proof, is where exposure hides.
Vantify’s Annual Compliance Report 2026 analysed a full year of structured data across 1000s of live assessments covering fire, water, asbestos and operational risk. The findings challenge how many organisations define compliance assurance. Below is an extract from the report.
What the data shows at a glance
Across UK portfolios, the data points to persistent everyday risk alongside growing workflow inefficiency.
- Everyday hazards such as slips and trips remain frequent and preventable, often driving the long tail of claims and reputational impact.
- Fire safety continues to generate high volumes of remedial actions, particularly around fire doors and compartmentation integrity.
- Legionella compliance remains operationally demanding, with risk more often created by inconsistent implementation and incomplete evidence than by control gaps.
- Security and antisocial behaviour increasingly appear as safety risks, not ‘just security issues’, creating secondary risk exposures.
- Operationally, the pattern is intent vs delivery: assessments and actions are created, but closure, evidence and investment decisions can lag, leaving some hidden exposures.
The opportunity is to move from ‘compliance activity’ to ‘compliance assurance’.
The most mature organisations move from periodic, document-led compliance to continuous visibility and evidence-backed closure. A hazard is controlled only when actions are completed, verified and evidenced at scale.
Across all 12 trends, three actions consistently reduce risk and cost:
- Strengthen closure discipline (priority-based, escalation, evidence required to close).
- Target repeat recurring risks (a small subset of sites often generates disproportionate risk).
- Connecting compliance to operations and supplier assurance – when compliance, operations and supplier assurance are connected, risk stops ‘hiding’ between systems and control happens before work starts, not after something goes wrong.
The full report sets out all 12 trends in detail, with underlying data, regional patterns and the specific actions that move each risk from activity to assurance.
THE HOTEL OF TOMORROW
As guest expectations rise, the true differentiator for hotels in 2026 lies behind the scenes. This piece explores how robust compliance, connected systems, and greater supply chain visibility are becoming essential to protecting reputation, managing risk, and ultimately delivering the seamless experiences guests expect.
If you picture the hotel of the future, you might describe the guest experience: smart rooms, personalised service, seamless check-in. But guest experience is just the output, not the foundation. The hotels that lead with confidence in 2026 will be the ones that have quietly built the operational backbone behind it: strong facilities management, robust supplier assurance, connected risk management, and compliance systems ready for what comes next.
A hotel depends on dozens of contractors and suppliers, from linen and food to fire safety and cleaning, and each one is a potential point of failure. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 makes it clear that a policy statement is not a defence; businesses must verify and actively oversee the suppliers they work with. It may shock you to learn that 69% of businesses lack the necessary visibility over their supply chains.
In an industry where news travels fast, protecting brand reputation is critical. One unchecked supplier can lead to serious consequences: lost clients, damaged brand image, and reputational harm that takes years to repair. Knowing who is verified and where the gaps are is no longer an administrative afterthought. It is reputational insurance.
The same logic applies to facilities management and compliance. Martyn's Law, backed by statutory guidance published in April 2026, brings hotels squarely into scope. Even at standard tier, operators must document evacuation procedures and prove they have thought seriously about risk. Compliance is moving from periodic review to continuous evidence.
A hotel spanning kitchens, plant rooms, guest floors, and function spaces cannot manage that with fragmented spreadsheets and siloed systems. It needs one connected view of risk, maintenance, and supplier status, so a lapsed certification or an overdue fire door inspection is visible before it becomes an incident.
Looking ahead, the next stage is compliance support that gets smarter, spotting patterns across a portfolio and flagging emerging risk before it escalates, rather than waiting for the next scheduled audit. Hotels that build strong data foundations will now be best placed to benefit as that capability matures.
None of this sits apart from the guest experience. A hotel with genuine oversight of its facilities, risk, and suppliers is one that keeps its promises: doors that work, kitchens that pass inspection, staff who know what to do in an emergency. Safety and comfort are the result of the compliance and maintenance systems working quietly in the background.
Vantify's connected ecosystem brings compliance, supply chain, and facilities management into a single vantage point. It is this connectivity that allows hotels to run more efficiently, perform consistently, and stay a step ahead of competitors.
The hotel of the future will still need great service and beautifully designed rooms. But it will be future-proofed by the systems that nobody sees.
DON'T OVER COMPLICATE IT
Hotels work hard to create wine lists that complement their food offering, suit their guest profile and deliver strong margins.
However, the success of any wine list depends on more than the wines themselves; the knowledge and confidence of the team serving them can make a significant difference.
It's something we see regularly when working with hospitality customers. A venue may invest time selecting the right wines, but if staff are unsure what’s on the list or how to talk about these wines, guests are less likely to move beyond their usual choice. In contrast, knowledgeable staff are far more comfortable making recommendations and introducing customers to something new.
When staff are confident in wine and understand a wine's story, flavour profile and food pairing potential, they're far more confident recommending it, which naturally increases customer spend per head.
Training doesn't have to be complicated and can fit into a hotel’s already busy schedule. Short tasting sessions before service, supplier-led training visits or introducing a few key wines at a time can all help build confidence without taking staff away from their day-to-day responsibilities. My top tip is to learn two wines at a time – know them inside out and feel confident talking about them. Then add a further two to your repertoire, and repeat.
The most effective training focuses on practical information that teams can immediately use with guests. Rather than memorising grape varieties or wine regions, staff benefit from understanding how a wine tastes, what dishes it pairs well with and why it has been selected for the list. Even better if staff can remember an anecdote about the wine, perhaps a note about the winemaker or the wine’s name – for example, our Don’t Tell Gary range always sparks conversation.
Training can also help hotels maximise the value of their wine programme. A recommendation from a knowledgeable member of staff often carries far more weight than a description on a wine list. Guests are looking for guidance, particularly when celebrating a special occasion or dining somewhere new, and a confident recommendation can enhance the overall experience.
Wine suppliers also have an important role to play. Alongside helping build a wine list that suits a hotel's style and customer base, suppliers should provide ongoing support and staff education. Consumer preferences continue to evolve, and regular training ensures teams stay up to date and engaged with the wines they're serving.
For more information about Lanchester Wines, please visit their website.
A HOTEL ROOM THAT THINKS AHEAD
As hotels navigate rising costs and evolving guest expectations, AI is emerging as a quiet but powerful ally. This editorial explores how intelligent climate control is helping operators deliver consistent comfort, improve energy efficiency, and unlock new levels of operational insight, without compromising the human touch at the heart of hospitality.
In hospitality, the best service often goes unnoticed. Guests rarely think about what happens behind the scenes, or about the technology that helps make their stay comfortable, seamless, and stress-free.
Traditionally, it has been people who create those memorable guest experiences. But a new kind of team member is beginning to play a supporting role.
Artificial intelligence is quietly helping hotels balance guest expectations with operational realities. At times of rising energy costs, increasing sustainability demands, and growing pressure on resources, AI-powered systems can help operators deliver exceptional comfort while reducing unnecessary energy use.
Making Smarter Decisions, Room by Room
Across the hospitality sector, operators are under pressure to reduce costs, meet ESG commitments, and deliver consistently high guest experiences. Yet guest-room climate control remains one of the most persistent operational challenges. Temperatures that are too warm, too cold, or slow to respond are among the most common sources of guest dissatisfaction. At the same time, heating and cooling account for 40% to 60% of hotel energy consumption.
The problem is that traditional thermostats only react to commands. They respond when a guest adjusts the temperature but have little understanding of how a room is actually being used or how conditions are changing throughout the day. AI-powered energy management systems, such as Verdant by Copeland operate differently.
Rather than simply following a fixed schedule, these systems continuously analyze occupancy patterns, room performance, outdoor conditions, and historical data to make smarter decisions. The result is a guest room that feels more responsive, maintaining comfort when it matters most while reducing unnecessary energy use when rooms are unoccupied.
This shift represents an important evolution for hospitality. Instead of forcing operators to choose between guest satisfaction and efficiency, intelligent automation helps deliver both simultaneously.
Moving from reactive to predictive comfort
One of the biggest advantages of AI is its ability to anticipate rather than react. Consider a room that has been vacant for several hours. A conventional system may only begin adjusting the temperature when a guest enters the room. An intelligent system can recognize likely occupancy patterns and ensure the room reaches a comfortable temperature at the right time, creating a seamless arrival experience without wasting energy throughout the day.
Beyond occupancy, AI can identify rooms that consistently struggle to reach target temperatures or require longer heating and cooling cycles than expected. This insight allows operators to spot inefficiencies and investigate potential issues before they begin affecting guest comfort.
The outcome is not only greater energy efficiency but more consistent experience across every room in the property.
The Personal Touch, Powered by Technology
Guest expectations are also evolving. Travelers increasingly expect experiences that feel tailored to their preferences, whether through digital check-in, customizations, and room controls.
AI-driven climate management supports this trend by helping create more comfortable environments without requiring constant manual adjustments. Over time, intelligent systems can learn how rooms perform under different conditions and optimize settings automatically.
Guests may never notice the technology working behind the scenes, and that's precisely the point. The most effective systems are the ones that quietly create comfortable, consistent experiences while reducing the complexity of managing them.
The hidden value of intelligent rooms
While energy savings often headline discussions around smart thermostats, their true value may lie in the data they generate.
Every adjustment, occupancy event, and performance trend contributes to a clearer picture of how a property operates. This information helps operators make better decisions about maintenance, capital planning, sustainability initiatives, and guest service strategies.
As hotels continue embracing connected technologies, guest rooms are becoming active contributors to operational intelligence rather than isolated spaces.
The hospitality industry will always be defined by people and service. But increasingly, the most effective way to support both is through smarter technology.
AI-powered climate control is not about replacing the human element of hospitality. It is about creating an environment where comfort, efficiency, and sustainability no longer compete for priority.
And in an industry where guest expectations continue to rise while operational pressures intensify, that may be the most valuable innovations of all.
BUILDING INTELLIGENT HOSPITALITY
Artificial intelligence has become one of hospitality's defining technologies, but its long-term impact will depend less on individual applications and more on the industry's ability to build connected, intelligent operating environments that place the guest at the centre of every decision.
The hospitality industry has invested heavily in technology over the past two decades to improve efficiency, strengthen guest engagement and generate new revenue. Property management systems (PMS), point-of-sale (POS) platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, spa software, golf applications, booking engines and revenue management systems have all become more sophisticated. Yet many hotels still operate with highly capable but siloed systems that struggle to function as a cohesive whole. Guest information remains fragmented across applications, operational decisions stay confined within departments, and employees often spend more time navigating technology than serving guests.
AI has brought new urgency to this challenge. Many of today's goals focus on conversational interfaces, intelligent assistants, automated workflows and predictive analytics. Those capabilities matter, but they also raise a more fundamental question: Can the underlying technology ecosystem support them?
According to Frank Pitsikalis, Senior Vice President of Product Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer at Agilysys, the conversation should begin with the guest and the experience an organisation wants to create.
That perspective shifts the discussion. Hospitality's future depends on an organisation's ability to transform information from multiple systems into insight, automate routine work without sacrificing human judgment, and equip employees with the context to create better guest experiences. This philosophy underpins what Agilysys calls intelligent hospitality. Rather than layering AI onto an already complex technology stack, intelligent hospitality positions AI as connective intelligence that links systems, surfaces information when it matters, and helps hotels respond to guests as individuals rather than transactions and create exceptional experiences.
Hotel market revenue is expected to reach $492.36 billion (USD) in 2026, with a projected market volume of $638.39 billion (USD) by 2030. With the average revenue per user (ARPU) projected at $345.36, hotels that focus on intelligent hospitality through a connected AI-enhanced technology ecosystem have the ability to predict guest behaviour, suggest reservations and activities based on intelligent guest profiles, and capture more of this revenue per guest across every touchpoint.
Each guest experiences the property differently. They remember whether the hotel recognised them on a return visit, whether a request made during booking was acknowledged at check-in, and whether recommendations felt relevant. Their perception is built through connected moments, even when the systems supporting them remain disconnected. AI offers an opportunity to close that gap, but only if the underlying data, systems and governance are equally connected.
In that sense, AI acts as an accelerant. Organisations with connected data, interoperable platforms and disciplined governance will adopt new capabilities more effectively, while those relying on fragmented systems will simply expose existing limitations faster. This philosophy shapes Agilysys' AI strategy organised around four strategic pillars: hyper-personalisation, multi-modal experiences, agentic AI and revenue intelligence. Together, they reflect the belief that hospitality's next competitive advantage will come from an operating environment that learns from every guest interaction and shares that intelligence across the enterprise.
Knowing the Guest Is Different From Knowing About the Guest
Personalisation has been a hospitality objective for years. Hotels collect reservation histories, dining preferences, spa appointments, golf scheduling, retail purchases, maintenance requests, loyalty activity and guest feedback. Yet even repeat guests often encounter experiences that feel anonymous. The challenge is rarely a lack of data. It is that valuable information remains trapped inside the systems that collected it.
Personalisation depends on context, not simply data. A returning guest should not have to repeat a room preference at every stay. A dietary restriction shared during a previous visit should be available wherever food and beverage decisions are made. An anniversary celebrated during one stay should influence future recommendations, and every property in the portfolio should know the guest's preferred activities – whether golf, spa or gaming – and base recommendations on past behaviour. Too often, these connected moments are treated as isolated transactions because the systems recording them were never designed to create a unified guest view.
Frank asserts that hospitality's next evolution requires a continuously developing source of guest intelligence reflecting activity across the entire property. That philosophy is embodied in the Agilysys Intelligent Guest Profile, which brings together information from accommodations, dining, spa, golf, activities and other touchpoints into a unified record of the guest relationship. The result is a richer foundation from which AI can surface relevant insights when they are needed most.
The implications extend beyond recognising preferences or remembering special occasions. Hotel technology has traditionally documented what happened. Intelligent systems increasingly help operators determine what should happen next. Employees receive relevant information within their workflow rather than searching across multiple applications, while recommendations reflect demonstrated behaviour instead of broad demographic assumptions.
A unified guest view also creates commercial value. Every interaction becomes another source of intelligence, revealing patterns across accommodations, dining, wellness and recreation that can inform staffing, merchandising, programming and future investment decisions. Personalisation becomes an operational capability that improves both the guest experience and business performance.
When Technology Learns the Language of Hospitality
Guests do not think in terms of modifying reservations or updating profiles. They simply want to explain what they hope to do during their stay. Associates likewise do not want to remember which application contains a guest preference or available inventory. They want immediate access to the information needed to serve the guest.
This shift toward multi-modal experiences involves far more than another user interface. During his presentation at HITEC 2026, Frank described a future in which conversation becomes the primary method of interaction. Guests could plan an entire stay – from accommodations to dining, spa, golf and activities – through natural dialogue without navigating separate systems or repeatedly providing the same information. Employees could retrieve preferences, review availability, and complete operational tasks through equally intuitive exchanges.
The business implications are significant. Hospitality has long struggled to give employees enough time to deliver the level of service that organisations promise. Even fully staffed operations devote considerable time to administrative work. Every minute spent searching for information or navigating multiple systems is time unavailable for meaningful guest interaction. Multi-modal AI can return that capacity by making information easier to retrieve and routine tasks easier to complete, aligning with the broader vision of intelligent hospitality: simplify operations so employees can focus on the guest.
Once AI can understand requests, retrieve information and recommend actions, it can increasingly execute well-defined tasks on behalf of employees. This evolution has given rise to agentic AI, which extends beyond traditional automation by participating directly in operational workflows.
The Rise of the Digital Workforce
Hospitality software has traditionally recorded work after it occurred. The next generation of intelligent systems is beginning to participate in the work itself. AI agents can coordinate workflows, process invoices, assist with room assignments, manage routine reservations, support accounting functions, and perform other administrative activities that consume valuable employee time. Within a disciplined operating framework, these agents function as specialised digital workers with defined responsibilities, controls and escalation paths.
The goal is not to replace human judgment but to elevate it. Exceptional hospitality depends on empathy, discretion, creativity and the ability to respond when circumstances fall outside a script. Those qualities remain distinctly human. Rules-based administrative work is better suited to intelligent automation. Every routine task delegated responsibly to AI creates more time for conversation, problem-solving and personalised service.
As AI assumes greater operational responsibility, trust becomes central. Hospitality organisations manage highly personal information, including payment details, travel itineraries, family relationships, preferences and special occasions. That information enables better service, but it also requires organisations to ensure automated actions remain secure, transparent and accountable.
This is why governance occupies such a central role in Agilysys' AI strategy. Rather than serving only as a compliance requirement, governance establishes the confidence necessary to deploy AI without compromising privacy, security or accountability. As intelligent systems move from answering questions to executing decisions, governance becomes an operational discipline spanning technology, risk, operations and leadership.
Frank has emphasised the importance of building a scalable architecture that can evolve alongside the technology. Organisations need the flexibility to adopt new capabilities without rebuilding their foundations. Consistent controls for data access, model orchestration, auditability and protection of personally identifiable information (PII) provide that foundation, allowing innovation to advance while preserving guest trust.
Revenue Strategy Without Departmental Boundaries
The same connected approach applies to commercial performance. Revenue management has long been one of hospitality's most sophisticated disciplines, yet it has traditionally reflected the way hotels organise themselves rather than the way guests experience a property. Rooms, restaurants, spas, golf operations and recreational activities often function as separate revenue centres. Guests, however, experience a single destination.
AI creates an opportunity to rethink revenue through the full guest relationship. A change in weather may shift demand from outdoor recreation to spa appointments. Dining preferences may indicate interest in culinary experiences or wine events. Family travel patterns may influence activity programming, while group arrivals affect restaurant demand, staffing and ancillary service capacity. Together, these signals can influence pricing, availability, merchandising, staffing and operational planning across the enterprise.
This broader perspective is central to Agilysys' approach to revenue intelligence. Optimisation extends beyond room inventory and rate decisions to encompass the full range of guest experiences across a property. Availability becomes more dynamic, merchandising reflects guest behaviour and context, and scheduling reduces unproductive gaps across spa, golf and activity operations. Recommendations become more relevant because they account for both guest preferences and current operating conditions.
The result is a more complete understanding of guest value. Traditional revenue measures remain essential, but they capture only part of the economic relationship between a guest and a destination. Hotels that understand how accommodations, dining, wellness, recreation and retail interact can make better decisions about resource allocation and guest engagement. Revenue optimisation becomes a property-wide discipline organised around the guest experience rather than departmental objectives.
Trust as a Competitive Advantage
Hospitality has always been defined by its ability to anticipate needs, create memorable experiences, and build lasting relationships. AI does not change those objectives; it raises the standard for delivering them consistently across increasingly complex operations. Hotels invest in AI to better understand guests, empower employees, and operate with greater intelligence. Achieving those outcomes depends on a connected environment that shares information responsibly, learns continuously, and preserves the trust of operators, employees and guests.
Organisations that create lasting value will be those that establish a scalable, intelligent foundation capable of adapting as the technology advances. Connected data, interoperable systems, responsible governance, and a clear understanding of the guest experience provide that foundation, enabling operators to evaluate new capabilities based on strategic value rather than technological novelty.
That is the promise of intelligent hospitality. It is an operating philosophy in which technology works quietly across the enterprise, helping employees understand guests more completely, reducing friction in routine work, and identifying opportunities that disconnected systems often overlook. AI delivers its greatest value when it strengthens the qualities that already define exceptional hospitality: attention, judgment, responsiveness and trust.
As Frank shared at HITEC, the industry's success with AI should ultimately be measured by its ability to make hospitality more human. When information becomes more accessible, routine decisions become easier, and systems function as a connected whole, employees gain something increasingly valuable: more time to focus on people. That may prove to be artificial intelligence's most meaningful contribution to hospitality.