Abode Worldwide (not related to Adobe, the tech company) just dropped its 2026 Hospitality Tech Investment Index, and the headline number jumps out: 40 hotel tech companies raised a combined $1 billion between April 2025 and March 2026. Sounds like a surge… until you look closer. Property management systems led with about 40% of total capital, but Mews alone raised $300 million, meaning one company drove nearly a third of all funding. As we covered in a previous issue, that single raise ends up skewing the entire category. Mews is strong in Europe, gaining traction on the continent, but has few customers here in Hawaiʻi.
The top raises tell a clearer story: Mews ($300M, PMS), Kindred ($85M, home swapping), Canary ($80M, guest experience), Duve ($60M, guest experience), and Wander ($50M, luxury rentals). Two of the top five going to guest experience platforms isn’t a coincidence. AI messaging, digital check-in, and upsell tools have officially moved out of the “nice-to-have” bucket.
Zoom out, and the breakdown gets interesting: PMS (~40%), alternative accommodations (~29%), guest experience (~15%), everything else (~11%), and revenue management… just 3%. For something we all obsess over, that’s surprisingly low. Either the category is maturing, or it’s being overlooked. Worth keeping an eye on.
BTW… rooting for our own Hawai’i-grown guest experience platform start-up platform Abra to show up on this list next year.
