What does becoming an AI-first company make possible for hotels and their guests? Kevin King, CEO of Shiji International, shares how Shiji is building on years of investment in connected technology to develop AI with hotel companies, simplify complex workflows, and give teams more time with guests.

We discuss why Shiji took time to establish the right foundations for AI, how it's changing the way their teams build technology, and a late-checkout development example that shows what having work done for you could look like. Kevin also offers guidance on choosing technology partners and shares his vision for the "art of possibility": systems that learn how people need to work.

Learn more about the technology discussed:

• Daylight PMS
• Shiji Platform
• Meridian Experiences

Read the article discussed: Shiji AI·R: Transitioning to an AI-First Hospitality Platform.

This episode is sponsored by Shiji International

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Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Chris Anderson, the Professor and Area Chair of Services Management at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, shares what he has learned as owner of a historic inn in Ithaca. 

You'll hear why owning a property where most guests return year after year gave him a different perspective on pricing than others, why the inn closes during its slower periods so his team can travel and be with family, and what getting close to operations—then stepping back from it—taught him. 

Listen to my earlier conversations with Chris: 

• Why Hotels Can't Wait on AI
• What I've Learned About How Hotel Leaders Learn

More from Chris: ckanderson.com

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
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If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Chris Anderson, the Professor and Area Chair of Services Management at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, shares what he's learned about how hotel leaders learn, from teaching both 20-year-old undergraduates and 65-year-old seasoned leaders. You'll hear how Chris keeps learning himself, why real learning is supposed to feel inefficient, and why AI is bringing hands-on, learn-by-doing skill-building back to leaders in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Chris's course: AI in Hospitality certificate (eCornell)

Listen to my earlier conversation with Chris: Why Hotels Can't Wait on AI

More from Chris: ckanderson.com

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
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If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Cally Coombs, the fifth-generation innkeeper at Little River Inn, shares how her family's inn on California's Mendocino Coast keeps changing while remaining loved by locals and visitors alike. You'll hear why the bar stays exactly as it is while everything else is up for grabs, how a loyalty program for the rainy months brings guests back when the coast is quiet, and why giving your team real authority only works when they care enough to listen first.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Little River Inn
• Rain Chasers (the inn's program for stays from November to April)
• Little River Inn Golf & Tennis
• Little River Inn packages (including the Cioppino Dinner Package)
• Pet-friendly stays at Little River Inn
• Little River Inn dining and Ole's Whale Watch Bar
• Visit Mendocino
• Mendocino Coast Clinics (beneficiary of the Crab Cake Cook-Off)

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Hotel guest satisfaction increased across every segment in J.D. Power's 2026 North America study. Andrea Stokes, Practice Lead, Hospitality Intelligence, explains what guests are noticing in rooms and shared spaces, why responsive human service still matters alongside mobile check-in, and what operators can learn from food and beverage. We also discuss how J.D. Power benchmarks large third-party hotel management companies.

Learn more:

• 2026 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study
• 2026 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark
• 2023 conversation: How J.D. Power studies hotel guest satisfaction
• 2024 conversation: Changing guest expectations and hotel management

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Today in Washington, DC, I shared findings from the State of Hotel AI research I ran with Nazpari Aydin for Destination AI. We surveyed hotel company leaders about how they feel about AI, where it's paying off today, and what's holding them back. 

The research

• State of Hotel AI: Fall 2026 findings
• Take the survey to get the full benchmarking data set

Related episodes

• Destination AI: How I Built the #1 Hospitality AI Event From Scratch (Nazpari Aydin)
• Stop Guessing About AI. See What Hotel Leaders Are Actually Doing (Nazpari Aydin)
• AI is the Tool. Mindset is the Operating System. Hospitality is the Outcome. (Danica Smith)
• How Loews Hotels Puts AI to Work for Guests and Teams (Dan Kornick, Loews Hotels)

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

AI is the tool, mindset is the operating system, and hospitality is the outcome. In this episode, Danica Smith, Guest Experience Correspondent at Hospitality Daily and founder of MorningStar GX, shares what this framework means for hospitality leaders: giving people the time and support to use AI, keeping experimentation focused on useful outcomes, and considering operational efficiency alongside team well-being and guest experience.

Read Danica’s article: You Cannot Automate Your Way Out Of Overwhelm

Listen to our previous conversation: Is AI Actually Improving Our Lives?

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
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• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Danica Smith, Guest Experience Correspondent at Hospitality Daily and founder of MorningStar GX, joins Josiah Mackenzie to share her read on AI in travel and hospitality, fresh from the main stage at AI Summit Barcelona, where not one person in the room said they would let an AI agent book their trip without approval. Danica and Josiah compare that hesitation with Josiah’s recent experience using AI to research and book a trip. They also discuss inequality in experimenting with AI, what productivity measures can miss about hospitality work, consent when technology records guests, and whether a new tool is actually making life better.

Mentioned in this episode:

• AI Summit Barcelona
• Women in Travel Thrive
• ChatGPT Codex
• Claude
• Meta Muse
• OpenClaw
• Wispr Flow
• Granola
• Lovable
• Canva

More with Danica:

• Should Hoteliers be "Vibe Coding" with AI?
• Guest Experience Tech: What I Learned Building, Selling, and Using It
• Beyond Buzzwords: The Truth about Guest Experience

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

In this episode, Steven Moore, CEO of Actabl, and Joseph Benjamin, Actabl's Chief Technology Officer, share a practical approach to using AI in hotel operations as leaders prepare for budget season. They explain why reliable operational AI depends on trusted data, how it can give hotel teams more time with guests, and how leaders can move from scattered experiments to a coherent architecture without creating new security and cost problems.

Watch the webinar:

• Access the original on-demand Actabl webinar and see the presentation slides

Explore Actabl AI:

• Actabl AI: Hotel AI That Works
• AI Insights: From Labor Data to Labor Action
• Altitude: Answers About Hotel Performance From AI You Can Trust
• Actabl Data Services: The Data Foundation for Hotel AI

Actabl AI announcements:

• Actabl's AI Insights Cut Overtime Share of Hours by 13% Across 100-Plus Hotels
• Actabl Introduces Altitude
• Actabl Launches Forward-Deployed Engineering for the Hotel Industry
• Actabl Granted a U.S. Patent for Hotel Data Normalization
• Actabl Launches AI Asset Setup
• Actabl Hires a Global Hotel Engineering Leader as SVP of AI Asset Management

Related companies and episode:

• Steven and Joseph's earlier episode, How Hotel Companies Turn AI Into Competitive Advantage, on forward-deployed engineering

This episode is sponsored by Actabl

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Dan Kornick, Chief Information Officer at Loews Hotels, explains how they decide where AI can improve hotel work and guest service. Dan also discusses working with technology partners, measuring results, and testing whether the value justifies the cost.

Going to Destination AI? Hear Dan there: Destination AI Forum.

Read my related HotelOperations.com article: Most Hotel AI is Stuck in “Pilot Purgatory” But Loews Sees a Way Out.

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands

Alex Cabañas, founder and CEO of Astound Ventures and executive chairman of Pyramid Global Hospitality, shares how our industry can innovate to make hotels more profitable, working in hotels more rewarding, and stays in hotels more enjoyable.

Learn more:

• Astound Ventures: launch announcement, net unit margin approach & portfolio companies
• Operational examples: Base Power (home batteries) | Fox Fold (refillable paper) | Outmore (heated outdoor furniture) | Relivable (meeting and event workflows)
• Events: Destination AI Forum | Blueprint

A few more resources:

• If you're new to Hospitality Daily, start here. 
• You can send me a message here with questions, comments, or guest suggestions
• If you want to get my summary and actionable insights from each episode delivered to your inbox each day, subscribe here for free.
• Follow Hospitality Daily and join the conversation on YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
• If you want to advertise on Hospitality Daily, here are the ways we can work together.

If you found this episode interesting or helpful, send it to someone on your team so you can turn the ideas into action and benefit your business and the people you serve!

Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands