The latest hospitality trends for 2026: Five themes reshaping the guest experience
December 10, 2025
In this forward-looking episode, Hotel Moment co-hosts Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, and Brenna Turpin, Marketing Coordinator at Revinate, preview the five critical trends that will shape hospitality in 2026. Drawing from guest conversations throughout 2025, they explore how hyper-personalization is evolving from data collection to activation, why unified tech stacks with CDPs as anchors are replacing legacy system patchworks, and how real-time decisioning enables dynamic responses to weather, events, and occupancy patterns. They also address escalating cybersecurity concerns and the evolution of guest communication platforms into orchestration hubs that create seamless experiences across the entire guest journey.
In this special trends episode of Hotel Moment, hostKaren Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer at Revinate, and Brenna Turpin, Marketing Coordinator at Revinate, take a collaborative approach to previewing what hoteliers should expect in 2026. Rather than featuring an external guest, they synthesize insights from the podcast's conversations throughout 2025 to identify five critical themes that will reshape the industry.
What you'll learn:
- Hyper-personalization becomes mainstream: Building on Carlo Del Mistro from Ennismore's 2025 prediction, personalization shifts from collecting preferences and stay histories to actually using that data for tailored experiences. The evolution moves from "one size fits some" broad segments to "one size fits one" individualized offers, with generative AI creating messaging and real-time triggers activating upsells based on guest behavior.
- Unified tech stacks replace legacy patchworks: Ideas' Future Forecasts report reveals only half of hoteliers currently use mostly integrated tools, but 2026 will drive adoption of cloud APIs and microservices architectures enabling faster innovation. Customer Data Platforms emerge as the anchor, consolidating siloed data sources into single guest profiles while enabling activation across channels through embedded CRM functionality.
- Real-time decisioning transforms operations: Moving beyond retrospective analytics, hotels will use live data from local events, weather patterns, foot traffic, and travel trends to adjust demand forecasts and revenue strategies dynamically. Unified dashboards pulling live stream data rather than batch data enable occupancy forecasting, dynamic pricing, staffing optimization, and event-based interventions based on actual conditions.
- Cybersecurity and privacy become non-negotiable: As guest data grows richer with behavioral and location information, regulatory frameworks including GDPR, CCPA, and global equivalents continue evolving. Hotels must transparently explain data usage with clear opt-in/opt-out controls, treat every IoT device and integration point as potential vulnerability, and prioritize unified clean data since fragmented data creates open doors for cyberattacks.
- Guest communication evolves into orchestration hubs: Platforms move beyond separate email tools, chatbots, and messaging apps to create connected guest journey systems. AI virtual concierges access full guest history and current context to trigger hyper-personalized offers, mobile apps integrate real-time request handling with upsell opportunities, and API-first approaches enable seamless data exchange while maintaining human-led service for complex interactions.
Throughout the conversation, Karen and Brenna emphasize that 2026 represents a pivot point where initial digital adoption waves complete and the focus shifts to real-time activation, deep personalization embedding into operations, and viewing technology through added privacy and safety measures as must-haves rather than nice-to-haves.
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Check out the Idea’s report here
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Episode Highlights:
[01:35] The action frontier - Karen sets the stage: "We've had a watershed year for digital transformation, and the next frontier is not just about adoption, it's about action. We've got to weave together guest experience, operational agility, and data-driven decision making."
[02:25] Beyond name and greeting - Karen explains evolving expectations: "Guests expect more than name and greeting. They really expect tailored stays, meaningful upsells, and experiences that anticipate their needs. It's really about show me that you know me and market to me as if you know what I'm gonna want pre, post, and during stay."
[04:20] From accumulation to activation - Brenna identifies the critical shift: "2025 has been about guest data and accumulation. 2026 will be the year of guest data activation. It's going to shift from just purely collecting the data to really translating it to actual personalization from pre-arrival to post-stay."
[08:45] Real-time decisioning emerges - Brenna highlights operational transformation: "Data has long been a hot topic in hospitality, but many hotels still use it retrospectively. In 2026, the emphasis is on growing towards real-time operational decision-making using occupancy forecasting, dynamic pricing, staffing optimization, and event-based intervention."
[13:23] Security as loyalty driver - Karen addresses escalating concerns: "Hotels are going to need to transparently explain how they use data. Opt-in, opt-out controls and secure infrastructure will gain loyalty. You've got to make sure you're using a platform that's got best-in-class security embedded."
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to 2026 trends
01:43 - Trend 1: Hyper-personalization goes mainstream
05:49 - Trend 2: Unified tech stacks and microservices platforms
09:15 - Trend 3: Data analytics and real-time decisioning
12:57 - Trend 4: Cybersecurity and privacy escalation
15:36 - Trend 5: Guest communication platforms as orchestration hubs
19:01 - Recap and looking ahead to 2026
00:00 - Introduction to 2026 trends
01:43 - Trend 1: Hyper-personalization goes mainstream
05:49 - Trend 2: Unified tech stacks and microservices platforms
09:15 - Trend 3: Data analytics and real-time decisioning
12:57 - Trend 4: Cybersecurity and privacy escalation
15:36 - Trend 5: Guest communication platforms as orchestration hubs
19:01 - Recap and looking ahead to 2026
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here.
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.
Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.
If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:
- Innovation in hospitality technology
- Guest experience transformation
- Revenue optimization strategies
- Emerging industry trends
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