Marketing & Guest Loyalty

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on every business leader’s mind at the moment, and this is no different in the hotels and tourism sectors. There is extensive research pointing to the potential productivity, financial, and operational benefits of AI, and businesses across the world are trying to capitalise on this exciting opportunity.

The hospitality customer journey has become more fragmented and compressed than ever before. Travelers now move fluidly between search engines, AI-powered answers, metasearch platforms, social channels, video, and review sites before making a booking decision. For hotel leaders, the challenge is no longer just visibility. It is staying relevant, accurate, and compelling across every moment of discovery.

Hoteliers are telling us they are surrounded by tech-savvy guests, with many regularly turning to generative AI (GenAI) for recommendations on where to visit, stay, or eat. It can be exciting for travellers to discover hidden gems in cities they would have never otherwise found, or visit hole-in-the-wall cafes with unique menus. That heightened expectation of travel experiences is carried throughout their trips, which can add pressure on hoteliers to assess GenAI for how it can help to improve their business and customer experiences.

In hotel operations, automation doesn’t fail loudly. It fails quietly.

There’s an old expression: Feedback is a gift. Whenever a customer is willing to take time to share feedback by talking to you, emailing you, or leaving an online comment, it’s a gift. It either validates that what you’re doing is working or points out opportunities to improve. Companies obsess over survey scores and online reviews, and that’s smart. But if you only focus on what customers are telling you, you might miss important feedback that’s unintentionally hidden in what they don’t mention.

Pets are an important part of our lives. They deserve to be treated to the same five-star experiences as we are. And there’s an emerging trend within luxury hospitality that proves it’s not only our animal friends who’ll benefit – hotels can too.

As we look ahead to 2026, the year feels genuinely promising for Hospitality Net and for the wider hospitality community. Our industry continues to move forward through conversation, collaboration, and the kind of face-to-face connection that turns ideas into initiatives. Events remain the moments where perspectives sharpen, partnerships form, and new solutions move from concept to operational reality. With that spirit in mind, we are pleased to introduce the 2026 Hospitality Net Industry Calendar, a curated guide to the year’s most relevant gatherings across the global hospitality landscape.

Happy New Year! This is the season when many people (and companies) take time to reset and prepare to kick off the new year. Some have already made their plan. Others choose to do it at the beginning of the year. It doesn’t matter when you choose to reset as long as you do it. So, for this first article, I’d like to offer up something to consider. Twelve New Year’s resolutions in the form of what you should STOP doing! (By the way, I recently wrote a similar article featuring five of these for Forbes. Read the article here.)

What will the guest journey look like in 2026 and beyond? As hospitality arrives at yet another critical moment, the 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook authored by Mews explores how the rise of AI – both generative and agentic – is transforming how hotels operate, interact with guests and drive revenue.

It’s that time of year when I write articles featuring my customer service and customer experience predictions and trends. This year’s predictions were featured in two separate articles for my weekly Forbes column. For our subscribers and followers, I’ve combined the lists with actionable ideas for bringing the predictions to life.