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Artificial intelligence has moved from experimentation to expectation in hospitality. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts’ newly released second-annual Owner Trends Report suggests the industry has reached an inflection point: hotel owners and developers are broadly embracing AI, but many are still searching for clearer direction on how to turn early adoption into sustained financial returns.
Drawn from a survey of hundreds of hotel owners and property developers across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, the findings reflect a cross-section of the lodging industry spanning multiple brands and business models. Despite continued pressure from rising costs, economic uncertainty and operational complexity, respondents express strong confidence in hospitality’s long-term outlook and are increasingly looking to established brands for guidance, proven technology and long-term partnerships as AI becomes more deeply embedded in operations.
“Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping hospitality—opening new opportunities while adding fresh layers of complexity,” said Scott Strickland, chief commercial officer, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “With years of early and significant foundational investment, Wyndham is well positioned to help hoteliers navigate this evolving landscape, offering not only the guidance they seek but also proven, scalable platforms that make it easier to apply AI where it matters most, helping turn innovation into real revenue, greater efficiency and stronger returns.”
Nearly all hotel owners surveyed, 98 percent, say they have begun incorporating AI into their business, signaling that broad adoption is already underway. Yet depth of deployment varies widely. Fewer than one-third, 32 percent, say AI is embedded across most aspects of their operations, while nearly three-quarters, 73 percent, want to do more but feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start.
That gap highlights a familiar pattern in hotel technology cycles: point solutions are adopted quickly, but stitching those tools into a cohesive, enterprise-level strategy is far more difficult. For many owners, the challenge is less about whether AI works and more about where it delivers the greatest impact and how it integrates with existing systems.
Among owners and developers already using AI in some capacity, the most common applications center on areas with immediate operational and financial payoff. Sixty-four percent cite operational efficiency, 54 percent point to energy efficiency, and 53 percent are using AI for revenue optimization. These use cases align closely with core hotel systems such as property management, revenue management, energy management and workforce platforms, suggesting that embedded AI within foundational systems is gaining more traction than standalone tools.
Looking ahead, owners see opportunity to push AI further upstream in the hotel lifecycle. When asked about priorities for 2026, the most common response, at 61 percent, was using AI to play a larger role in construction planning, including permitting and zoning. Revenue optimization followed at 30 percent. The data points to growing interest in applying AI not only to run hotels more efficiently, but also to inform development decisions, evaluate feasibility and reduce risk before projects break ground.
As AI adoption accelerates, hotel owners continue to lean on brands as technology partners. Nearly nine in ten respondents, 89 percent, say working with a hotel brand is beneficial when incorporating AI into their business, and more than a third, 34 percent, consider it essential. For brands, this reinforces their evolving role as technology orchestrators, responsible for vetting solutions, enabling integration and providing a consistent digital foundation across portfolios.
At the same time, meaningful barriers remain. Data privacy and security concerns top the list at 46 percent, followed by the cost of investing in AI tools at 42 percent and the difficulty of integrating AI with legacy systems at 40 percent. These concerns underscore that successful AI strategies depend as much on architecture, governance and interoperability as they do on advanced algorithms.
Owners also remain cautious about relinquishing full control to machines. Only 40 percent are comfortable with AI making operating decisions without human oversight, while 57 percent require a human in the loop. For technology providers, this points to continued demand for systems that support and inform decisions rather than replace them outright.
Wyndham is positioning its own platforms as a practical bridge between innovation and execution. Through solutions such as Wyndham Connect and Wyndham Connect PLUS, the company is embedding AI across much of the guest journey, including automated messaging, mobile check-in, dynamic upsells and voice assistance. More than 5,000 hotels have adopted Wyndham Connect, logging nearly 12 million guest interactions. Properties using Wyndham Connect PLUS report nearly 200 basis points improvement in direct voice conversion and 400 basis points improvement in overall guest satisfaction.
Beyond guest engagement, Wyndham continues to leverage partnerships with major technology providers such as Google and Amazon to strengthen hotel visibility across traditional digital channels as well as emerging AI-powered search environments.
Despite ongoing economic shifts, optimism remains high. Ninety percent of hoteliers say they are optimistic about 2026, and 95 percent are optimistic about the next five years. Nearly 80 percent plan to expand their portfolios over the next five years, and 97 percent say they are open to joining or switching brands if the right opportunity presents itself.
When it comes to capital allocation, technology remains firmly on the agenda. Nineteen percent of hoteliers plan to prioritize technology investments in 2026, alongside staffing, property improvements and sales and marketing. The data suggests that even amid uncertainty, owners view technology—and increasingly AI—as a core driver of competitiveness.
Taken together, Wyndham’s findings paint a picture of an industry that has accepted AI as inevitable, but is still working through how to deploy it in a way that is scalable, secure and financially meaningful. For hotel technology leaders, the next phase will be less about proving what AI can do, and more about delivering platforms and partnerships that help owners move from experimentation to consistent, repeatable results.