Hotels must get AI-ready soon, or risk falling behind, Mews warns

Artificial intelligence is poised to compress the hotel guest journey from scattered clicks into a single conversation, and the next 12 months may determine which hotels remain visible in that future. That is the central message of Reimagining the Guest Journey in the Age of AI, Mews’ 2026 recently released hospitality industry outlook report, which frames 2026 as a make-or-break year for hotel transformation.

The report predicts that by 2035, most hotel discovery and booking will take place through AI-driven conversations, routine guest requests will be handled by autonomous agents, and at least half of back-office tasks will be automated. What will remain resolutely human, Mews argues, are the emotional, high-impact moments that define hospitality. The challenge for the industry is using 2026 to lay the groundwork for that balance before AI expectations harden.

A range of experts and scenarios

Drawing on a Delphi-inspired research process, which is a structured method for gathering and refining expert opinions to explore complex, uncertain future questions, Mews convened 18 experts from hospitality, technology, consulting, finance and media to assess 15 future scenarios based on likelihood, impact and desirability.

Across generative AI, agentic AI and automation, a strong consensus emerged: AI will fundamentally reshape how guests search, book, interact and stay—and hotels that delay preparation risk becoming invisible in AI-mediated channels.

One of the most significant shifts centers on discovery and booking. Traditional lists, filters and ads are giving way to conversational search, where AI synthesizes data from websites, online travel agencies (OTAs), reviews and social channels into a single narrative. In that environment, visibility depends less on marketing spend and more on structured data, consistent content and open APIs.

If AI cannot easily understand or trust a hotel’s information, it may skip that property entirely.

Agent dominance versus direct bookings

The report highlights a parallel power struggle emerging around guest relationships. AI assistants could reinforce online travel agent dominance, or they could help hotels reclaim direct bookings. The difference, according to the panel, lies in connectivity and content. Hotels with unified systems and rich, AI-ready descriptions of rooms, amenities and services are better positioned to earn both guest and algorithmic trust, while also upselling bookable extras that OTAs often overlook.

Agentic AI, which is software that can plan and execute tasks autonomously, is expected to deliver its earliest benefits behind the scenes. The expert panel sees back-office functions such as guest communications, housekeeping scheduling, reporting and revenue management as the ripest for automation. These gains could reduce friction for guests and staff alike, provided clear guardrails and human oversight remain in place.

Critically, the report maintains that staff roles will evolve rather than disappear. As transactional tasks like check-in, payments and routine inquiries become automated, hotel employees can focus more on empathy, problem-solving and storytelling. In luxury segments especially, automation is expected to stay mostly invisible, supporting, not replacing, the human touch that guests value.

A four-step checklist

To help operators act decisively in 2026, Mews outlines a four-step AI readiness checklist. The first step is assessing the tech stack and data flows across property management, customer relationship management, housekeeping, payments and other core systems to uncover silos and integration gaps. Next comes making content AI-ready by creating a single source of truth for property facts and concise Q&A responses that stay consistent across channels.

The third step is for hotels to refrain from sweeping transformations at the start in favor of beginning with one small, supervised AI pilot—such as handling pre-arrival questions or summarizing guest feedback—inside existing systems. The final step emphasizes governance and change management: cross-functional ownership, clear accountability and staff training to ensure automation enhances service instead of eroding it.

While many of the report’s scenarios play out over a decade, Mews makes clear that the window for preparation is short. Conversational search, AI-generated summaries and autonomous agents are already reshaping guest expectations. Hotels that treat 2026 as a clean-up and alignment year, the report notes, will be best positioned to thrive when AI becomes the default interface between travelers and hospitality.

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