Hotelier Perspectives

The digital shelf has fundamentally reshaped how hospitality products are presented and sold, and this transformation extends far beyond just revenue channels; it presents an unparalleled opportunity to radically redesign our workforce and job roles. In an environment where every product is digitally accessible and discoverable, the focus shifts from siloed departmental functions to a holistic, across-property experience management strategy. This isn’t just a strategic luxury; it’s a genuine requirement for delivering a comprehensive customer experience, unlocking significant revenue growth, and achieving true operational cohesion in hospitality.

When Dana Kelly, Owner of Penrose Hospitality Solutions, found herself wanting to pivot her career from working in behavioral health to a role in the hospitality industry, she didn’t know where to start. Setting out in an industry in which she had few connections or business acumen, Dana sought out tools to help ease the transition, leading her to NEWH, Inc.’s Martha’s Mentors program. It’s here that she was paired with Jeanne Varney, Senior Lecturer at the Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and Past International President of NEWH, Inc.

Over the past year, we’ve all been talking (and hearing) a lot about MCP, the Model Context Protocol. It’s the new standard introduced by Anthropic and now being adopted by OpenAI and Google — essentially a new, more intelligent way for AI models to connect to real-world data and tools.

“Experience” is everywhere. It’s one of the most wildly overused terms in modern hospitality, used to describe everything from hair salons to hotel bedrooms. As a result, it’s easy for executives to feel lost when guests ask for “experience-led” travel – and, to cope, many default to renovation, restaurants, and retail makeovers in an attempt to match the demand.

Sometimes it’s useful to look to other industries to get inspiration for how to improve efficiency and experiences. Sometimes you don’t need to look so far.

In an era where customer expectations are higher than ever, the hospitality industry is undergoing a quiet revolution. It’s no longer just about fluffy pillows, complimentary breakfast, or check-in mints. The new gold standard in hospitality? Emotionally resonant, hyper-personalized guest experiences that make people feel seen, valued, and connected.

The future of hospitality is not about beds and breakfasts. It is about building ecosystems where culture, creativity, and community flourish through in person connection. Increasingly, the world’s most compelling destinations are not defined by their beaches or their skyline, but by the way they bring people together to learn, to create, and to belong and to connect.

Hotel tech looks simple from the lobby; but as we know, behind the front desk it’s anything but. Recently, Otelier’s Distinguished Architect Lex Raleigh sat down with SnapLogic CMO Dayle Hall to explain why hospitality’s data problem is unlike any other – and how progressive hoteliers are solving it with a mix of pragmatic integrations. Below is a recap of the conversation focused on how innovative hoteliers have already turned to automation, including AI that actually answers questions to help you drive real-life demand.

The Q3 2025 Shiji Global Guest Experience Benchmark reveals a narrative of resilience. Traditionally, the third quarter, coinciding with peak travel in the northern hemisphere, brings a dip in guest satisfaction as occupancy rises and rates surge. This year, however, results defied expectations.

To write about the future is, inevitably, to be wrong about the future. I have repeated this for years, and yet, it remains the truest sentence I know. The mistake, however, is not a failure of prediction but a form of knowledge. We now inhabit a “post-postmodern”, almost “post-futurist” condition, a time in which tomorrow no longer stretches ahead as a horizon but hovers above us like a permanent update, endlessly refreshing itself. And although the Singularity that Kurzweil foresaw two decades ago has not yet fully arrived, his law of accelerating returns already permeates the present, altering our perception of time and possibility. Within this landscape, those of us who attempt to understand technology are no longer prophets, but rather cartographers of the impermanent, tracing transient patterns across the shifting topography of innovation. What follows, therefore, are not laws but coordinates, ten mutable constellations, ten subtle tremors that delineate the tectonic rewriting of business, technology, and meaning itself. Because the future, in the end, is no longer what it used to be.