As hotel operators contend with rising labor, insurance and operating costs, technology is playing an increasingly important role in protecting margins and improving performance. While hotels have more data available than ever before, the challenge is turning that information into actionable insights that help managers make better decisions faster.
Ahead of The Hospitality Show 2026, advisory board member Matthew Bright, senior vice president and head of information technology at Davidson Hospitality Group, discussed how the company is leveraging AI to streamline operations, surface valuable commercial intelligence and free hotel teams to focus on what matters most: the guest experience. He also shared why the next phase of AI adoption will be less about generating reports and more about helping hotel leaders quickly identify priorities, solve problems and take action.
What's the biggest threat to hotel profitability right now, and what's the biggest opportunity?
The biggest threat is cost pressure that isn't letting up. Labor, insurance, and the general cost of doing business are all climbing faster than we can push rate in a lot of markets. The biggest opportunity is technology closing that gap without hurting the guest experience. We have more data than ever coming out of our PMS, revenue management, and labor systems, and the opportunity is using AI to actually turn that into decisions instead of just more reports for our GMs to read.
What's the one thing your company is doing today to optimize operations, improve efficiency or drive better returns?
We've built our AI strategy around two pillars: giving our teams a safe, enterprise-grade way to use AI in their day-to-day work, and applying analytical AI to our data warehouse to surface commercial intelligence our leaders can act on. The goal isn't AI for its own sake. It's giving people back time and giving leaders better information faster than they'd get it manually.
What guest expectation has changed the most, and how are hotels adapting without sacrificing margins?
Guests expect the same frictionless, self-service experience they get everywhere else in their lives, but they still want a real person available the moment something goes wrong or gets personal. Hotels are adapting by letting technology handle the repetitive, transactional stuff so staff have more time and attention for the moments that actually require a human touch. Margins hold up when technology takes work off people's plates rather than just cutting headcount.
Where do you see AI delivering the most tangible value in hotel operations over the next few years?
I think it's in cutting through the noise. Our GMs and department heads get information from a half dozen different systems every day: labor, revenue, guest sentiment, maintenance, finance. Most of them start their morning hunting for what actually needs their attention. AI's biggest near-term win is doing that triage for them, flagging what's unusual, what's trending the wrong way, and what needs a decision today, so leaders spend less time compiling reports and more time acting on them.
Why is The Hospitality Show valuable to you personally, and how does it benefit your company?
I really enjoy coming to events like this where the innovative side of hospitality can be showcased. As an industry we've lagged behind in technology innovation, and it's events like this that remind everyone what is possible and what cool new technology is out there to try out. It's also always great to network with our peers in the industry and share ideas to solve our common problems.