The conversation around hotel technology has shifted. It is no longer a discussion about what tools hotels own—but how those tools actively drive loyalty, revenue and guest spend. That was the theme of a recent Hotel Business Hot Topics session, in partnership with DIRECTV HOSPITALITY, focused on operational agility and guest experience.
Moderated by Glenn Haussman, founder/host of the No Vacancy Live podcast, the panel included Tristan Gadsby, cofounder/CEO, Alliants; Dawn Gallagher, president, hospitality, Crescent Hotels & Resorts; Scott Strickland, chief commercial officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts; and Kim Twiggs, VP, business development, DIRECTV HOSPITALITY.
“Guest preferences are evolving, and competition is intensifying,” said Haussman to begin the session. “Hotel leaders are rethinking how technology can better serve the guest and the bottom line.”
From a management perspective, Gallagher noted that “there is never a one-size-fits-all solution. When we take over 15 hotels a year, each comes with something different. We have to evaluate the tech stack and integrate it to drive revenue.”
At Wyndham, Strickland framed the guest journey as a single, connected loop, driven almost entirely by the phone.
Describing the guest journey, he explained, “You check in on your mobile. You pay on your mobile. You enter your room and stream music from your mobile to the in-room technology. You stream a movie from your mobile. When you check out, you might tip housekeeping from your mobile. It is all about frictionless experiences.”
That frictionless experience requires connectivity across every layer. “You have to make sure the mobile device interfaces with everything on your property,” he said. “That is not easy. Every guest wants a slightly different experience, but the mobile platform gives them choice to text, stream or call from a single place,” Strickland said.
All that convenience depends on a foundation many hotels still treat as an afterthought.
“What powers everything we are talking about is strong WiFi,” said Twiggs. “It is a behind-the-scenes upgrade that allows mobile to work, in-room technology to work, streaming to work and ancillary revenue to flow.”
Gallagher agreed that WiFi is an essential piece of the hotel experience. “The internet connection is like breathing for a guest,” she said. “If you do not have it, they will leave. They might take a cold shower, but they will not stay in a hotel without the right bandwidth. When we open new hotels, we try to anticipate what will be needed five years out. We cannot just meet brand minimums. We have to think long term.”
While infrastructure sets the stage, the future value unlock lies in data—and especially in how data translates into measurable actions. For too long, Gadsby said, the industry has used data to describe guests, not to serve them,
“We have been guilty of knowing one occupant of the room, the booker,” he said. “We need to understand every guest, whether they are dining, staying for leisure or for blended travel. If you make it easy for the customer, they spend money. That is the reality.”
But meaningful personalization also requires staff empowerment. “Technology should help them be more efficient and get the information they need in the moment,” Gadsby noted. “End-to-end seamless, contactless experiences are the goal.”
Strickland explained that Wyndham has collected guest data to personalize the guest’s on-site experience.
“Seven years ago, we were cloud before cloud was cool,” he said. “We consolidated onto a single digital platform and two PMS systems globally. Then we created central repositories. That gave us 100 use cases. We prioritized these use cases based on return and guest expectations. One is enriched guest profiles. If Tristan calls, we know he prefers a king bed, what his loyalty tier is and his lifetime value, and we have a next best action. If we can march him through that faster, handle time goes down, the franchisee gets more revenue and the guest is happier.”
Twiggs called the PMS “the ground zero source” of that intelligence, adding, “It’s the first place to collect information—room preferences, beverage preferences, communication preferences. There is a fine line between too much and too little. Contactless technology can collect more without the guest realizing they are providing it. Then you have to put it to use. That is how hotels stay relevant and competitive. Personalization is the next frontier.”
Gallagher pointed out that the question now is not whether hotels need technology, but rather which technology and whether it positions the business for the industry that is coming. She said that companies should ask themselves three questions: “What is going to happen in the next five years?” “Where is technology going?” and “Are we partnered with companies that are forward-thinking?”
“That is where it starts,” she said. “We have all these different brands and resorts. Where is the central repository where we can all see the same thing? What system normalizes PMS or sales data so we can make decisions off the same information?”
TV time
The discussion moved into the guestroom and the in-room TV, an integral part of the guest experience, according to Twiggs.
“Our research shows that aside from room cleanliness, bed comfort and a quiet room, TV content ranks above all other room offerings in importance,” she said. “It ranks higher than room service, food quality, lighting, workspace and coffeemakers. The in-room TV experience significantly influences repeat visits. Guests aged 21 to 49 value it even more. They will pay more for access to live, local and on-demand content. They will switch hotels or brands based on whether they like the in-room entertainment experience.”
Twiggs said the industry needs to stop treating the TV as décor and start treating it as a commerce channel, adding, “People are still turning the TV on. They want to enjoy content on their own terms and it leads to better reviews. In-room entertainment is still a critical part of the guest stay,”
For operators managing large portfolios, staying ahead means making tech investments that unlock ROI—not just check brand boxes. Gallagher said the business case must be clear.
“You cannot create an experience that matters if you are not upgrading your TVs,” she said. “If you do not deliver what the guest expects, your cost of acquisition goes up because you are not getting the repeat stay.”
Secondary spend, she noted, now matters more than ever. “This is not a robust year for market share; next year will not be either,” she said. “We have to look at technology and ways to connect to the customer to drive ancillary revenue. That is where most of our increases will come from.”
Revenue channels
Data will help hoteliers find that reachable revenue. But data only becomes action when the hotel uses it to initiate valuable interactions at the right time.
Gadsby believes the industry is shifting from marketing-based personalization to service-based personalization, noting, “When guests trust you with their data, and when you use it to deliver service, the relationship changes.”
His company has seen the ROI of proactive messaging firsthand. “If you engage a guest in messaging, their spend can increase by about 30%,” he said. “Messaging has much higher engagement than email. The potential to drive ancillary revenue is enormous.”
Crescent Hotels & Resorts puts that same principle into operation at the front desk—which, Gallagher said, has become a revenue engine.
“The front desk is not just check-in anymore,” she said. “If the front desk builds that relationship, guests want that text message, and they respond to it. It is the last 15 points of profit you can get.”
Wyndham has taken that premise and scaled it across its lower-tier brands, proving that ancillary revenue is not just for luxury. Strickland said that Wyndham rolled out standardized guest messaging across 5,000 properties.
“It went from zero to 5,000 hotels in 18 months because there was ROI for the franchisee—even for a Super 8 off the highway,” he said. “They could sell early arrival, late checkout or a six-pack of beer waiting in the room. The average select-service franchisee makes $1,400 a month. For some owners, that is the difference between making the mortgage or not.”
Twiggs noted that the screen—whether the room TV, the mobile device or the WiFi landing page—will become one of the most important new revenue channels hotels have.
“They are powerful places to target guests,” she said. “Targeted advertising is the next frontier—bringing them to onsite outlets or partner venues. It is another path to ancillary revenue and makes the guest feel seen.”
One cannot have a conversation about hotels and technology without discussing AI and its capabilities to help properties and companies run more efficiently and optimize the guest experience.
When asked about the use of AI to parse data to provide actionable insights, Gadsby said the value lies in how well the brand knows the individual guest, not the booker in the PMS.
“The right action depends on your brand and which moments you want to own in the experience,” he said. “Is it a bottle of water on arrival, a welcome cocktail or something else? Once AI knows what is available, it can recommend options. There are three things AI needs to understand to make great recommendations: the customer, the context and what’s available.”
And those recommendations, he emphasized, must serve the guest journey. “If you engage guests via messaging, total spend per customer can rise about 30%,” he said. “Messaging engagement beats email, especially during the stay. The potential to drive ancillary revenue is enormous.”
AI can also help out at the front desk, allowing agents to attend to other responsibilities, noted Strickland, adding, “AI can serve as that primary interface to the guest via text messaging while they’re on property. Sometimes they can make a recommendation to a local restaurant, so the guests don’t have to call downstairs. And if that person happens to be asking for towels, AI can flag that as a service request.”
Haussman then asked Twiggs about the metrics hotel leaders overlook when measuring the impact of entertainment platforms.
“If you’re thinking of the in-room TV just as a cost burden or as a budget line item, that’s such an old, antiquated way to think about it,” she replied. “But if you put it in the context of its importance to guests and the possibility of creating ancillary spend, that’s when it starts to shift the paradigm.”
She added, “The thing about a great in-room entertainment experience is that when it works just like it should, and when it exceeds expectations, guests are going to remember. The opposite is also true. When it doesn’t work, they’re also going to remember. So, it’s important to ensure hoteliers invest in the future of these technologies”
For hotel operators planning 2025 and 2026 budgets, the panel delivered a single message: stop thinking of in-room technology as cost and start thinking of it as the engine of the next stage of revenue growth.
Hotels that connect the dots between screens, data and messaging will win not because they “have tech,” but because they use tech to make each guest feel individually served—and to monetize that moment in real time.
Final Thoughts
As the session drew to a close, the panelists were asked for their closing statements on the topics covered during the discussion.
“Front-desk training still includes asking a guest if they’ve stayed with you before, even when the system already shows the answer. We need training that creates real customer connection because using the guest’s name—even in a text—creates a warm, memorable experience. For someone on the road 50 weeks a year, that personal touch drives loyalty.”
—Dawn Gallagher
“I worked at Virgin a long time ago, and in the early days, way before they had hotels, Virgin always talked about ‘brilliant basics’ and ‘magic moments,’ and that framework still holds. We must get the basics right—like properly using the biggest screen in the room and maintaining accurate guest profiles. Then we can use technology to create magic moments and drive revenue, while doing a better job articulating ROI in the language the industry uses.”
—Tristan Gadsby
“We’ve had multiple guests ask our on-property AI out on a date, which shows how human the interaction can feel. But we should use these tools to make our team members look as knowledgeable as possible because we have the information on the guest. Now, let’s allow them to do something with it, and take the burden, for example, of answering all those phone calls off of them, so they can engage with that guest.”
—Scott Strickland
“Anything we can do to use technology to deepen our relationship with guests is the best thing we can do. They expect the same comforts they value at home—great WiFi, strong entertainment options, seamless personalization—on the road. This is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s table stakes, and technology is what makes that experience feel effortless and at home.”
—Kim Twiggs
