Change Management In Hospitality Industry

I’ve been paying close attention to where hospitality is actually moving, not in trend reports but on the ground, in conversations with operators, investors, and landowners. A few patterns are becoming hard to ignore as we move into 2026: 1. Farm stays will outperform “destination hotels.” Not because they’re novel, but because people want context again. Where food comes from. How land is managed. What regeneration actually looks like. Hospitality is becoming educational, whether operators plan for it or not. 2. Small, nature-integrated units beat scale. Tiny cabins, dispersed rooms, low visual impact. Guests increasingly value privacy, silence, and Nature immersion over amenities stacked on top of each other. 3. Single-function hospitality is fragile. Projects that combine lodging with wellness, farming, workshops, movement, learning or other experiences are less seasonal and more resilient. They give guests reasons to return, not just places to sleep. 4. Outdoors is no longer a “nice extra.” Landscapes are becoming the main asset, not the backdrop. Trails, productive gardens, orchards, water systems, farms, wild edges, these now drive experience, not just aesthetics. 5. Local food is shifting from branding to infrastructure. Guests don’t just want to eat local. They want to see it, walk through it, understand it. That requires land literacy, not just a supplier list. One of the clearest real-world examples of this approach is Babylonstoren in the Western Cape of South Africa. What’s often missed is why it works so well. They didn’t start with a hotel. They started by rebuilding a fully operational farm and winery. Only once that system worked did they add a 4-hectare vegetable garden, orchards, and eventually hospitality on top of it. The land came first. Hospitality followed. That sequencing is the lesson. The opportunity I see for 2026 isn’t about adding more rooms. It’s about designing land that works harder than buildings do. Operators who understand how to build functioning land systems first (and hospitality second) will quietly outperform those who don’t. The shift is already underway. #hospitalitytrends #regenerativedesign #agrotourism #boutiquehotels #landbasedbusiness #longtermvalue Picture credit: Babylonstoren

The less you do, the more you win… even in crisis times. Especially in times of crisis, this is the story of Chili’s. In Europe, most of us have never walked into a Chili’s. It’s a Tex-Mex casual dining chain in the US. Think burgers, fajitas, margaritas, and sizzling skillets. Fun? Yes. Thriving in a downturn? Surprisingly, yes. While competitors like TGI Friday’s and Red Lobster were filing for bankruptcy in 2024, Chili’s grew. More customers. More sales. More relevance. Why? Because they cut through complexity and went back to basics. Here’s what brands in any industry can learn from their turnaround: - 1. Cut clutter, deliver better. They trimmed 25% of the menu. Simpler kitchen. Faster prep. Fewer errors. More consistent quality. The result? A single dish, chicken crispers, jumped 66% in sales. Not because it changed. Because it was finally done right. - 2. Ask the people closest to the problem. The CEO runs listening sessions across the US. He asks one question: “If you were CEO, what would you change tomorrow?” One idea? Fix the fry salt shaker. Seasoning used to take 30 shakes. Now? A redesigned shaker and a better bowl. Hotter, crispier fries. Happier teams. - 3. Value that doesn’t race to the bottom. They introduced barbell pricing. €6 deals for the cost-conscious. €12 premium options for those who want more. It’s not just pricing—it’s flexibility. - 4. Make your classics go viral. The Triple Dipper wasn’t new. But it looked incredible on TikTok: cheese pulls, dips, textures. That social-first framing boosted sales by 70%. Now? It makes up 14% of all revenue. Big picture? +50% revenue growth over the last 3 years. +31% sales in a single quarter (while competitors dropped). +20% traffic growth during industry-wide decline. Triple Dipper sales ↑ 70% year-on-year. Chili’s didn’t invent a new product. They fixed what was broken. They trimmed the fat. They made it work harder. This is what growth looks like when you don’t chase more... you just do better. (Never had Chili's but I 'm hungry now and want some...) [Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Boom is a two-year-old AI-powered hospitality management platform whose latest funding round is a shot across the bow for every CXM platform with a foot in hospitality. The Bay Area-based company just raised $12.7 million to weave AI into the operational fabric of hotels. If you recall, Medallia started with Hilton as its first customer, so this is a particularly interesting story to follow. Boom isn't offering a chatbot in the lobby. On the contrary, they're promising conversational AI, hyper‑personalization, and predictive analytics that can learn, adapt, and autonomously manage complex tasks. Why does this matter for Qualtrics, Medallia, Sprinklr, and every other CXM vendor with hospitality clients? Because the data plumbing and decision‑making layers are moving deeper into the hotel. They're not going to live on a dashboard or inside a GenAI capability that a hotel manager uses to automatically generate a response to a low-NPS guest. This stuff will go by the way of the dodo bird. Imagine what this could look like: At Hilton, their Watson‑powered concierge “Connie” (now nearly 10 years old) answers questions about amenities and local restaurants. With Boom's AI capability, Connie could remember your running route from your last stay, pre-book your gym slot, and push a personalized offer through your loyalty app before you even unpack. Marriott Hotels has tested in‑room voice assistants that let guests control lighting and temperature. Layer predictive analytics on top, and the system could anticipate when you typically request room service, ask if you’d like your favorite snack delivered, and feed that behavior back into Qualtrics or Medallia for real‑time NPS tracking if you're into that sort of thing. Here’s how hospitality brands can turn this technology into magic: Connect your feedback loop. Integrate AI‑driven interactions with your CXM platform so every guest preference and sentiment automatically informs product and service tweaks. Train employees to be AI translators. Your staff should know how to interpret AI signals and add the human touch, whether it’s a concierge upselling a spa package or a manager smoothing out a glitch. Pilot, then scale. Start with a single property or service (e.g., check‑in) and use tiger teams to refine the experience before rolling it out chain‑wide. Frankly, I think Boom is ripe for a CXM provider looking for a nice tuck-in acquisition to boost their action-focused future and valuation. Because the future is not about delivering thermometers. The future is about enabling action at scale. Boom’s vision hints at a future where hotel stays feel bespoke at scale. If you were running Hilton or Marriott’s CX program, what’s one AI‑driven experience you’d implement tomorrow? #customerexperience #hospitality #ai #futureofwork #cxm #saas

Luxury guests under 40 don’t want the concierge in uniform. They want WhatsApp at 2 AM. I’ve seen 5-star hotels invest thousands in old-school concierge training, impeccable uniforms, formal language, classic protocol. Then the guest paying €800 per night shows up, 35 years old, tech or finance manager. First question: “Can I text you on WhatsApp?” The WhatsApp hotel market is worth $1.4 billion. Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Marriott use it as their primary channel. This isn’t a trend, it’s a structural shift. The millennial guest with money doesn’t want to wait in the lobby, doesn’t want to call reception, doesn’t want to explain the same request three times. They want to send a message at 11:47 PM, order champagne to their room, and get it in 15 minutes. 75% of luxury guests under 40 prefer digital self-service. 80% use their smartphone for the entire journey, from booking to checkout. But many luxury hotels still bet everything on formal service. Concierge addressing you as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam,’ long check-in rituals, phone calls for every request. This works perfectly for boomers. But for someone who’s 35 and earns well? It’s slow, inconvenient, and outdated. The difference isn’t luxury versus technology, but it’s formality versus immediacy. Hotels winning with this generation figured out one thing, luxury today isn’t marble and gold, it’s someone solving your problem in 2 minutes, on WhatsApp, at 2 AM, without you leaving your bed. The lobby concierge won’t disappear, but if your luxury hotel bets everything on that and nothing on digital, you’re losing the generation that will spend the most over the next 10 years.

💥 Accor’s Next Move: When “Separation” Becomes Strategy Accor’s board just approved the evaluation of a potential IPO for its lifestyle division, Ennismore — the creative house behind The Hoxton, 25hours Hotels, MAMA SHELTER, SLS Hotels, Mondrian Hotels, Delano Hotels, Hyde Hotels, Morgans Originals, TRIBE Hotels, JO&JOE , Working From_ , and Maison Delano Paris. At first glance, it looks like fragmentation — just as Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and IHG Hotels & Resorts keep adding brands under one umbrella. But look deeper 👇 ⸻ This isn’t a breakup — it’s a financial evolution. Accor is doing what Wall Street hasn’t rewarded yet: ➡️ Recognizing that lifestyle brands deserve a different valuation multiple than legacy midscale ones. ➡️ Giving its design-driven brands room to grow, partner, and experiment without corporate gravity. ➡️ Still keeping control — but inviting new investors and growth capital. ⸻ While U.S. giants sell scale and consistency, Accor is selling difference and agility. It’s the LVMH model applied to hospitality: One parent, multiple creative maisons, distinct audiences. For distribution, loyalty and channel teams, this move could reshape how lifestyle brands engage: • More bespoke content & channel strategies • Loyalty differentiation between lifestyle and core brands • New experiments in direct booking, social commerce, and F&B-driven guest engagement ⸻ 🔮 If lifestyle becomes 25% of global pipelines, others may follow. The question isn’t “Why is Accor splitting?” It’s “When will others start segmenting their story for investors too?” #Accor #Ennismore #TheHoxton #25hours #MamaShelter #SLS #Mondrian #Delano #Hyde #MorgansOriginals #TRIBE #JOandJOE #MaisonDelano #WorkingFrom #Hospitality #Distribution #Loyalty #HotelStrategy #TravelTech #BusinessTravel

Your restaurant is overstaffed. Just like it should be. And it's the smartest financial decision you'll ever make. I know. Sounds insane. Every consultant preaches lean staffing. Every owner obsesses over labor percentage. Every manager cuts to the bone. Meanwhile, the best operators I know run 2-3% higher labor. And absolutely dominate their markets. ⸻ Here's The Math That'll Make You Rethink Everything Restaurant doing $2.5M annually. Running 28% labor vs 25%. That's $75,000 "extra" in payroll. Expensive? Let's see what it buys: • Zero doubles = fresh staff, better service • Proper training time = fewer mistakes • Coverage for call-outs = no panic mode • Happy team = lower turnover Now the real numbers: Turnover drops from 75% to 40%. 35 fewer hires × $3,000 = $105,000 saved. You just made $30,000 by "overspending." ⸻ What Actually Happens When You Staff Properly I watched this transformation at a 200-seat steakhouse: Before: Skeleton crew • Servers with 8-table sections • Bartenders making salads • Managers expediting • 25% labor cost • Chaos every night After: Full staffing • Servers with 5-table sections • Dedicated support staff • Managers actually managing • 28% labor cost • Smooth service The results? Average check: Up 22% Table turns: Up 15% Guest complaints: Down 70% Revenue: Up $400K annually That 3% labor investment returned 16% more sales. ⸻ The Hidden Cost of Lean Staffing Here's what lean staffing actually costs: Your best server quits: $8,000 to replace Two bad Yelp reviews: $15,000 in lost sales Manager burnout: Priceless Guest never returns: $1,200 annually Add it up. That's $25,000+ per incident. How many incidents per month? Meanwhile, properly staffed restaurants: Staff stays years, not months. Guests become regulars. Managers have time to improve operations. Everyone makes more money. ⸻ The Strategy Nobody Talks About Stop managing to minimum coverage. Start staffing for maximum performance. Tuesday lunch needs 3 servers? Schedule 4. Saturday night needs 8? Schedule 10. "But Jim, that's expensive!" No. Turnover is expensive. Bad service is expensive. Stressed teams are expensive. Proper staffing is an investment. ⸻ Here's Your New Playbook Calculate your true turnover cost. Add your lost sales from poor service. Factor in manager burnout. Now compare that to 2-3% higher labor. Which costs more? The restaurants crushing it post-COVID? They figured this out. They're not managing labor percentage. They're managing guest experience. And banking the difference. 👊🏻 P.S. Still cutting staff to hit your labor target? Your competition is fully staffed and taking your customers. P.P.S. Want to see the staffing matrix that helped that steakhouse add $400K? Comment "STAFFING" below. Sometimes more is actually more. #RestaurantManagement #LaborCost #RestaurantSuccess

The ultimate "Behind the Scenes" vs. "Final Product" flex. Have you been there? Most brand marketing still relies on legacy, static playbooks. This is what happens when real-time spatial technology and AI-driven automation take over. Instead of traditional cut-and-paste production, this single-take FPV drone flythrough showcases a luxury resort in real time—with the pilot navigating tight corridors, pools, and guest suites while sitting in a moving golf cart. Beyond the stunning visuals, this represents a fundamental shift in how tech is redefining digital marketing and operations: 1. Spatial Intelligence Over Static Media Standard photography captures moments; spatial tech captures flow. FPV precision combined with immersive hardware creates a 1:1 sense of digital presence, giving potential guests a authentic, uninterrupted visual tour before they ever set foot on the property. 2. AI-Driven Workflow Acceleration Behind single-take shots like this, AI edge processing, automated flight stabilization, and dynamic real-time color grading eliminate weeks of post-production. What used to require a full film crew, heavy lighting rigs, and months of editing now happens dynamically on the fly. 3. Predictive Personalization & Spatial Data Captured visual maps aren't just for promotional content. Paired with spatial AI models, these precise 3D environments can feed directly into digital twins, interactive room previews, personalized virtual concierge experiences, and predictive hospitality operations. The Executive Playbook: Show the Machine Behind the Magic: Audiences value authenticity. Revealing the technical execution creates double the engagement. Compress Production Timelines: Utilizing automated flight pathing and smart camera tech cuts media asset acquisition costs by orders of magnitude. Bridge Physical & Digital (Phygital): Immersive visual capture is the first step toward building AI-powered digital storefronts and spatial search assets. Is your organization leveraging spatial tech and AI to reimagine customer acquisition, or are you still relying on traditional media pipelines? #SpatialComputing #FPV #AIinMarketing #HospitalityTech #ContentInnovation #DigitalTransformation #FutureOfMarketing

Organizational change doesn't have to be a disaster. Break through resistance and earn the team's trust. Here's how 👇 . . . Clear, consistent communication during change? It's a superpower I'm still learning to master. I witnessed major projects crash and burn. And I have made my own mistakes. 💣 The truth is, finding the right tone and reaching everyone isn't easy. What's easy is falling in these pitfalls: ❌ 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀: Confusion and resistance are built when information is not shared. Early updates may not be perfect but bring more trust than silence. ❌ 𝗢𝗻𝗲-𝗦𝗶𝘇𝗲-𝗙𝗶𝘁𝘀-𝗔𝗹𝗹: Town halls and mass emails are a start. But never leave it there - how do you know if people get the point? ❌ 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵: Being closed in an ivory tower and not talking to the people impacted --> steering into an iceberg. So, how can you we do better during change? ✨ 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 & 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: Be honest, be prompt, and explain the "why" and "when".  Trust starts with genuine transparency. ✨ 𝗧𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵: Meet the people where they are -  mix things up with walk-in calls, coffee chats, and individual discussions. ✨ 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Don't just talk, listen! Encourage feedback, create safe spaces, and truly engage in dialogue. It's a two-way street! Leading through change needs constant information. Not a one-time announcement. Not closed doors. Build trust with transparency, and actively listen. Build actions based on feedback. Repeat. Change is an opportunity for growth for everyone. What is your hack to succeed with change? 📸 Not so long ago, after so many hours of working on organizational change with Katarzyna Kochanek Andrea Mau Conrad Shreiner Jack Robertson, CPA #change #tlchange #effectivecommunication #transformation #peopleexperience

🚀 Transformation Management: The Power of Employee Engagement 🚀 My learning over the years is that a successful transformation — whether it’s digital, cultural, or structural — shares one common factor: people. Too often, transformation programs focus heavily on technology, processes, or strategy… and underestimate the human side of change. But transformation doesn’t happen to people — it happens through them. When employees are engaged, they: ✅ Understand the “why” behind the change ✅ Feel valued and involved in shaping the journey ✅ Become champions who inspire others to move forward When they’re disengaged, even the best-designed transformation can stall. Resistance builds, communication falters, and momentum fades. That’s why effective Transformation Management goes beyond project plans and milestones. It’s about building trust, co-creating the vision, and giving people a voice in the process. 💡 Engage early. Communicate often. Celebrate progress. After all, sustainable transformation isn’t about changing systems — it’s about empowering people to change the way they work, think, and grow. #TransformationManagement #ChangeLeadership #EmployeeEngagement #OrganizationalCulture #Leadership

When the hospitality industry hit pause during the pandemic, Radisson Hotel Group discovered a new opportunity in esports. The group has adapted 120 hotels with specific modifications for gaming and esports teams, including substantial infrastructure investments for enhanced electrical systems, specialised room layouts and technical setups. Examples include: flexible furniture configurations, upgraded WiFi, customised room service timing and dedicated training spaces. Radisson Hotel Group's success in this sector came from understanding the specific industry needs through industry consultation and making long-term commitments to the sector. This initiative has become a significant revenue generator, with ten major esports bookings in the past two years, including a two-week full property buyout for a major event. The group is now expanding this concept globally, with particular focus on emerging gaming hubs like Saudi Arabia. I interviewed Philipp Amberg on stage at BOE to share with you the latest innovation happening in the hospitality sector.