PHOENIX — Shrinking margins and a tight labor environment are among the major challenges hoteliers are facing today. A potential solution to that is investing in technology and catching up to other industries that are ahead of the curve.
"Technology in hospitality today, for lack of better words, sucks. We are so, so far behind," said Kamalesh Patel, 2025-2026 chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association during a session at The Lodging Conference.
Arash Azarbarzin, CEO at Highgate, said the hotel industry hasn't been fast enough to embrace technology and bring it into day-to-day operations, but it's starting to move in the right direction.
"We're embracing it more and more, but we're about 10 years behind the rest of the other industries outside of hospitality on the technology side," he said.
An example of a peer ahead of the hotel business is the airline industry. Patel said it's easy to book a flight, change a flight, pick a seat, and all of the above on apps from the major airlines such as United Airlines or Delta Air Lines. Hotel brand apps, however, can be less intuitive, he said.
"When's the last time you used a hotel app and was like, 'Oh my god, this is innovative. This is exactly what I was looking for,'" he said.
On the operations side, Patel said he wishes someone could figure out a way to make an integrated app that can control some cost-saving measures such as shutting off the lights and air conditioning in a room that is checked out of before the housekeeping staff arrives.
"The race here is not who adopts what first; the race here is going to be who standardizes this and adopts it first," he said.
Artificial intelligence
If there's one thing that could progress technology in the hospitality space, it may be artificial intelligence. Over the past few years, it's been a popular buzzword. Now it's about actually implementing it.
Craig Smith, CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality, said he was relatively a late-comer to the technology, but he has bought into its potential. He said Aimbridge hired a 23-year-old data scientist who wrote programs using AI that led to savings in the budgeting process within their first two weeks on the job.
"I've see so many shiny penny trends that have gone on for a while that I was like, 'Oh, here comes another one.' Everyone's excited about it. ... This is real," he said. "I'm really excited. This is not a shiny penny; this is a shiny dollar."
The majority of AI's impact will be in the non-customer-facing business rather than in the actual guest experience, Smith said. Aimbridge has begun using AI tools for its marketing and hiring process to "incredible results," he added.
Michelle Woodley, president at Preferred Travel Group, agreed that AI will be important with back-office functions such as the hiring process and budgeting. Human oversight is still needed, though, so it will serve as a tool rather than a replacement.
"This is not about eliminating jobs, it's about being more efficient, and a lot of that will then lead to better customer service because your front of house will not be bogged down with back-of-house operations and be able to actually serve the guest better," she said.
AI is "clearly going to be transformative," Extended Stay America President and CEO Greg Juceam said. He said any technology that promises to drive revenue, improve efficiency and reduce costs is one the hotel industry needs to see through.
There will be a focus on generative engine optimization rather than search engine optimization, Woodley said. This means ensuring that the information being fed to generative AI models is correct and the messaging they want users to receive on the marketing end.
"Now we need to make sure from a marketing standpoint that we actually have all the right information out there and that everything that we want the consumer to know about our hotels and our experiences is there for them to find," she said.