A Quick Journey to Future of the Hospitality Industry!

Millennials and Gen Z now make up the fastest-growing and most influential travel segments in the world. Both groups are mobile-first in every sense of the word. The shift from phone calls and front-desk interactions to app-based everything has already happened — and it is accelerating.

Hotels are taking this well beyond the booking stage. Guests now use smartphones as room keys, control lighting and temperature, order in-room services, and communicate with housekeeping without picking up a phone or visiting the front desk. The best contemporary hospitality apps are already building these capabilities — and they are going to get significantly more capable as AI becomes embedded in every layer of hotel operations.

Information technology holds the key to the future of hospitality. Social media, mobile booking, app-based services, and AI-driven personalisation are all parts of the same trend: putting maximum control in the hands of the guest, while giving hotel teams better tools to anticipate needs and deliver exceptional service.

AR and VR are no longer science fiction in hospitality. They are shaping the guest experience right now, and the applications are growing quickly. Prospective guests can take virtual tours of hotels, suites, pools and restaurants before booking. Event planners can walk through a ballroom in VR from the other side of the world. Marriott has been doing this for years, and it continues to expand its innovation in hospitality.

Beacon technology is another AR-adjacent trend worth watching. Small beacons positioned throughout a hotel enable two-way communication with guests’ phones. They can push personalised offers, guide guests through the property, and help hotels understand movement patterns in real time. The Samsung Insights piece on beacon technology and augmented reality covers how this was emerging in its early stages — what is happening now makes those early applications look modest.

Through VR and AR, guests can enjoy places and cultures in ways that would have been impossible before — from the comfort of their room or as an enhanced overlay on their physical surroundings. Gamification of hotel experiences, interactive hotel environments, and immersive destination previews are all becoming real. The hotel industry is embracing these technologies to come up with innovative hotel concepts that amaze customers.

We already have Siri and Alexa in smart rooms. Voice-controlled rooms, AI concierges, housekeeping robots, and real-time personalisation engines are moving from pilot projects to standard deployments at scale. The hotel rooms and services of 2030 will look meaningfully different from those of 2020.

Here is a 1-minute video about the future of hospitality, shared by the Chief Innovation Officer of EHL Switzerland. It is worth watching.

Technology, innovation, and creativity are converging to create hotel experiences that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. The hospitality industry is growing at a pace faster than almost all other sectors. With that growth comes extraordinary scope to improve, enhance, and reimagine the guest experience at every level.

Sustainability is not a trend that is coming to hospitality. It has arrived. Nine out of ten consumers say they look for sustainable options when travelling, according to a Wakefield Research study commissioned by Expedia Group. According to a 2024 PwC study, 80% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced goods and services.

Green tourism is on the rise. Hotels are adopting energy-efficient systems, LED lighting, smart thermostats, renewable energy sources, water conservation programmes, and waste reduction initiatives. Many are eliminating single-use plastics entirely and sourcing locally grown organic ingredients for their F&B operations.

But the most forward-thinking hospitality companies are going beyond sustainability into regeneration — actively creating positive environmental and community impact rather than simply reducing their negative footprint. The EHL Hospitality Outlook 2026 report identifies regenerative hospitality as one of the five defining forces shaping the industry’s future. Pioneering operators are applying these principles through local partnerships, biodiversity initiatives, and community employment programmes. Sustainability is not only environmental either. Social and economic sustainability — fair pay, community investment, responsible sourcing — are becoming equally important to guests and investors alike.

Farm-to-table is no longer a novel concept — it is increasingly a guest expectation. More hotel guests want to know where their food comes from, how it was produced, and whether it aligns with their values. Expect organic, locally sourced, and seasonal menus to become standard at any property competing above the mid-scale segment.

Similarly, wellness rooms are growing fast. These rooms include improved air filtration, blue-light-reducing lighting, circadian lighting systems, aromatherapy, and sleep-optimised mattresses and blackout systems. Wellness tourism — travel oriented toward improving physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing through spa treatments, yoga retreats, meditation and holistic experiences — is now one of the fastest-growing travel segments globally.

According to the EHL Hospitality Outlook 2026, food is becoming “a powerful expression of cultural identity, sustainability, and societal values.” This goes well beyond organic ingredients. It includes blockchain transparency in food sourcing, tech-enabled cooking methods, and F&B experiences designed around cultural storytelling. The hospitality industry has a long way to go — and that is precisely what makes this such an exciting time to be part of it.

Most people, when they travel, do not spend their time in their hotel room. They want to explore. Driftscape is a futuristic hotel concept that takes this insight to its logical extreme — a flying glass pod hotel designed by HOK, a Canadian architecture firm that won the Radical Innovation Award for this concept.

The hotel has 10 to 15 flying pods attached to a primary hub that includes the main lobby, restaurant, bar and lounge. Pods detach on a scheduled flight plan, fly guests over the surrounding area, and return to the hub for reconnection. Every pod has a camera dashboard so guests can photograph the world as they fly above it.

Driftscape may still be a concept, but it represents exactly the kind of thinking that is shaping where the hospitality industry is heading. What looks like a fictional movie today becomes the standard hotel room of tomorrow. That has been true of every major hospitality innovation for the past century. Check out more visionary thinking in our guide to the most innovative hotel concepts in the world.