In late June, I made my annual pilgrimage to HITEC and the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference, this year hosted in Indianapolis. On top of that, I squeezed in a HEDNA meeting, Sabre Consultants Day, the Cendyn Consultants Summit, and a dozen other side meetings and sessions.
I could easily pad this newsletter with a few extra pages to unpack it all, but I’ll spare you. Just know, a lot is happening in the travel tech and commercial strategy space right now. And as a consultant, it’s my job to stay on top of all of it, so if you ever want to chat about what it means for your hotel, you know where to find me.
That said, if I had to distill the week down to my Top 3 Takeaways:
- It’s All About AI (Or at Least Everyone Says It Is) There were many sessions on how to use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to boost individual and team productivity, and nearly every vendor claimed to have some kind of “AI-powered” feature. Regardless, if you’re not experimenting with these tools and talking to your vendors about it, you’re already playing catch-up.
- Revenue + Marketing + Sales = Commercial Harmony (or Chaos) HSMAI’s biggest message? Integrated commercial strategy isn’t optional anymore. Teams that still operate in silos are losing ground to those who align pricing, promotions, and planning in real time.
- Still Running on Dial-Up While AI dominated the headlines, the real elephant in the room was how many hotels are still stuck with systems that don’t talk to each other, filled with dirty data, and riddled with multiple “single sources of truth” depending on who’s answering the question. Other industries have moved on. Meanwhile, we’re still duct-taping tech stacks together and wondering why personalization feels impossible.
Bonus Perk of Being on Hawai’i Time on the Continent
Because flying back to Hawaiʻi always eats an extra day, I happened to be in town for Game 6 of the NBA Finals. I managed to snag a last-minute ticket, possibly the worst seat in the house, but at least I was in the house. Great game, and I’ve got to admit, the fans were a lot more civilized than what I’m used to in NYC. No one spilled beer on me or started a brawl in my row. I always thought that was just part of the game.
