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This year’s BITAC and ISHC conferences made one thing clear: the hospitality industry is at an inflection point. While economic pressures continue to shape short-term performance, the conversations across both events underscored how deeply our business is evolving, from extended-stay strategies and talent development to AI adoption and broader commercial trends. Below is a consolidated recap of the insights and themes that stood out across the sessions.
1. The Extended-Stay Landscape: “Stay Longer, Earn Stronger”
The BITAC panel on extended stay highlighted the segment’s growing importance, especially against the backdrop of a third consecutive quarter of RevPAR declines. If this were GDP, we’d be calling it a recession, so we’re effectively in a hotel-specific downturn, where flat ADR is directly eroding EBITDA.
A key theme: knowing what you are. Operators are still navigating whether extended-stay assets should behave like extended-stay (7–21 day LOS where the GOP really lives) or flex up to transient strategies during high-compression nights. The experts stressed discipline:
- Use your commercial teams to run displacement models.
Chasing citywide ADR spikes without understanding what long-term business you’re displacing can hurt the bottom line more than it helps it. - Market selection rule of thumb: look for RevPAR index premium that outperforms development cost premiums, that’s where the extended-stay model wins.
Technology also took center stage. Kiosks were compared to Shake Shack and airline check-ins, where upsell prompts drive a documented ~20% lift in sales. But the real message was this: invest in tech that reduces fixed costs or elevates guest value, not tech that becomes another line item. Examples ranged from automated barista robots to ID-verification kiosks, anything that simplifies operations without sacrificing the guest experience.
2. “Giving Back: If You’re Not Teaching, You’re Taking”
This session dug into culture, purpose, and the responsibility to prepare the next generation of hospitality professionals.
Key takeaways included:
- Knowledge sharing is the ultimate leadership responsibility.
- Culture is king. Organizations that pour into their teams will win the long game.
- To attract the next generation, learn from them, embrace authenticity, and let people feel seen.
- The panelists agreed that somewhere along the way, we traded pieces of hospitality’s heart in favor of profitability, and now the industry is trying to rebalance.
AI came up here as well, with a strong emphasis that “AI should mean actual interaction.” Tools like video kiosks may streamline tasks, but they should serve to increase human connection, not replace it. The concern: over-reliance on technology may inhibit the next generation’s foundational knowledge and critical-thinking skills. AI is a tool, not hospitality.
3. Innovations & The Future of Hospitality Tech
Another BITAC discussion focused heavily on how AI will reshape both guest interaction and hotel operations.
Highlights included:
- AI will drive hyper-personalization, using past behavior to surface what a guest needs before they ask.
- On the front of the house, AI enhances communication and efficiency but isn’t expected to eliminate jobs; more likely, it will replace outsourced services like marketing and some administrative tasks.
- Generative AI will eventually transact on behalf of the guest.
That means your website must be complete and comprehensive or you risk not being included as an option in AI-driven search results. - AI is proving valuable in training, more interactive and engaging than traditional manuals.
- Overarching point: AI is a tool that can improve both owner outcomes and guest experiences when used with intention.
4. ISHC: The Future of Talent
The ISHC session on talent reinforced a major truth: if we want to meet today’s workforce where they are, modernization is non-negotiable.
Key insights:
- While hospitality can’t become a fully remote industry, we can become more flexible in how, when, and where work gets done.
- Connecting people to purpose is essential for attraction and retention.
- Retention is becoming as important as recruitment; ensure that if someone leaves, they walk away as an advocate.
- Success in hospitality now requires a blend of:
cultural curiosity + high emotional intelligence + business acumen. - HR has shifted into more of a “caring department”, focused on developing and supporting the whole employee, not just filling roles.
5. ISHC: “Score Behind the Numbers” – A Data Deep Dive
This session explored the realities behind current performance trends.
When asked to describe what they’re seeing in one word, panelists offered:
- Interconnected
- Two-faced (some markets thriving, others under pressure)
- Untold (data without context or narrative)
Despite the influx of available data, the takeaway was clear: the human eye is still crucial. AI can process, but it can’t interpret the story for you, at least not fully.
Ancillary revenue trends were also a bright spot:
- Golf: +4.3%
- Wellness: +4.7%
- F&B: +2.6%
- Conference & Events: +1.6%
- Other revenue: +4.8%
F&B and conference revenue are still under pressure (largely due to labor costs), but the growth in wellness and experience-based revenue signals ongoing opportunity.
Final takeaway:
We need to creatively drive spend on property and widen the gap between RevPAR and TRevPAR. Trends will continue to shift, so agility is key.
Closing Thoughts
Across both conferences, the message was consistent: hospitality is in a moment of recalibration. Performance pressures are real, talent expectations have evolved, and technology is rewriting the playbook. But with thoughtful strategy, rooted in culture, storytelling, and guest-first innovation, the industry is well-positioned to emerge stronger.