Overview
- Mews’ 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook, published Dec. 10, positions the next 12 months as a preparation phase to align tech stacks, clean data, run a narrow supervised AI pilot, and put governance in place.
- The report forecasts a shift to conversational discovery and booking, with hotel visibility hinging on structured content, connectivity and open APIs rather than ad spend.
- Distribution dynamics could tilt toward OTAs or back to direct channels depending on whether hotels supply connected systems and rich, AI-ready content.
- Agentic AI is expected to deliver early gains in back-office work, guest communications and housekeeping, with human roles refocused on empathy and brand storytelling.
- Looking ahead to 2035, the report projects most discovery and booking flowing through a single AI conversation and at least half of back-office tasks automated, echoing market data showing rising mobile, last-minute behavior reported by Net Affinity.