Overview
- Mews’ 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook urges hotels to use the next year to assess systems and data, prepare structured content, run a single supervised AI pilot, and stand up governance.
- The research, drawing on 18 industry experts, finds consensus that AI will compress the path from search to stay, shift routine work to agents, and raise expectations for personalization.
- The Outlook projects that by 2035 most discovery and booking will occur through one AI conversation, at least half of back-office tasks will be automated, and most routine requests will be handled by AI agents.
- Net Affinity highlights a move to anticipatory personalization and ‘invisible’ automation, with hotels already cutting admin through automated payments and adopting AI-driven dynamic pricing that reacts to market signals.
- Both analyses stress resolving tech fragmentation through integrations and open APIs, with new builds like The Hawthorn by Galway Bay planning an integrated stack for its Spring 2026 opening.