HITEC 2026: What Hotel Leaders Should See, Evaluate, and Learn at Hospitality's Biggest Technology Event

June 15–18, 2026 | Henry B. González Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas

Every summer, thousands of hotel operators, general managers, revenue managers, and technology buyers fly into one city for four days of demos, conversations, and decisions that shape how their hotels run for the next few years. This year, that city is San Antonio.

HITEC 2026 runs June 15–18 at the Henry B. González Convention Center. Organized by HFTP (Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals), it's the largest hospitality technology conference in the world. More than 370 companies will be on the show floor. The exhibit hall covers over 80,000 square feet.

That's a lot of ground to cover. Walk in without a plan, and you'll spend four days collecting tote bags and business cards and leave without knowing if you found anything worth buying.

This guide is for people who want to use their time well.

What Is HITEC 2026?

HITEC (Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference) is where hotel technology buyers and vendors meet in person. It's not a trade show for general retail or consumer tech. Everything in that hall is built for hotels, resorts, restaurants, and travel companies.

The event combines a massive exhibit floor with an education program of 50-plus sessions. Speakers cover real-world problems: cybersecurity, revenue management, AI integration, guest experience, and the operational headaches that don't make it into vendor brochures.

This year's event is in San Antonio, Texas. If you haven't registered yet, you can do so at hitec.org.

What Makes HITEC 2026 Different for Hotel Technology Leaders

Hotel technology has been moving fast for the last three years. But 2026 feels different from the past few HITEC shows.

It's not just that AI exists now. Hotels are actually running it — and figuring out in real time what works and what doesn't. Same with mobile check-in, WhatsApp messaging, and automated upselling. These aren't hypothetical anymore.

A lot of operators came to HITEC 2024 curious about AI. Then they went home, ran a pilot, and learned something. This year, many of them are back to compare what they tested against everything else on the market. That's a harder buyer — more skeptical, more specific, less impressed by animated product videos.

If that's you, good. You'll get more out of this show than anyone who shows up without context.

7 Key Hospitality Technology Solutions to Evaluate at HITEC 2026

1 - AI-Powered Guest Communication to Watch at HITEC 2026

This will be one of the biggest categories on the floor at HITEC 2026. Expect to see AI chatbots, voice assistants, WhatsApp automation tools, and multilingual guest support platforms designed to improve guest experiences and streamline hotel operations.

The most important question to ask at every booth: Is this AI rule-based or conversational?

Rule-based chatbots follow scripts. They work fine if a guest's question matches a pre-set answer. The moment a guest types something unexpected—or switches languages mid-conversation—a rule-based system fails. Conversational AI, built on large language models, understands intent and context.

It handles the messy, off-script messages that actually show up in a hotel inbox. That's why many hotels are now investing in an AI chatbot for hotels that can deliver natural, human-like conversations across multiple guest touchpoints.

Ask the vendor: What happens when a guest asks something the system hasn't been trained on? Watch the demo with that in mind.

Also look for multilingual support (real multilingual capabilities, not just machine translation layered on top), channel coverage (WhatsApp, web chat, SMS, email, and phone), and seamless handoff to a human agent when needed. The best AI chatbot for hotels should enhance guest communication while reducing staff workload and maintaining a personalized guest experience.

2. PMS and System Integrations

A guest-facing AI tool that doesn't connect to your property management system is a toy, not a solution. The same goes for any platform that claims to automate bookings, upsells, or service requests.

At every booth where integrations matter, ask:

• Which PMS systems do you natively integrate with?

• Is the data sync real-time, or does it run on a delay?

• What are the API limitations?

• How long does implementation actually take?
  

That last question is the most honest one. Vendors will say "a few days" or "two weeks." Push for specifics. Ask them to name a hotel similar to yours that went live, and how long it took.

Also check: CRS connectivity, booking engine compatibility, and channel manager integrations. A platform that only connects to one or two PMS systems may not work for your property.

3. Revenue and Upselling Technology

Hotels leave money on the table every day. Most of it isn't from pricing strategy — it's from missed upsell moments. A guest books a standard room and never gets asked about a suite upgrade. They check in, and nobody mentions the spa deal. They order room service, and the system doesn't suggest add-ons.

Automated upselling tools have gotten much better. Look for platforms that:

• Trigger offers at the right point in the guest journey (pre-arrival, check-in, in-stay)

• Personalize based on booking data or past stay history

• Show you the revenue lift, not just the tool's activity log
  

Ask vendors for actual numbers from properties of your size. A resort with 800 rooms will see different results than a 90-room boutique hotel.

4. Guest Experience Platforms

At HITEC 2026, you'll find a wide range of guest experience platforms covering mobile check-in, digital keys, in-stay messaging, service requests, and digital compendiums.

Most solutions now handle the basics well, so focus on what sets them apart. Can guests use the platform without downloading an app? Does it support WhatsApp and web-based communication? Does it integrate with your PMS and automate service requests?

The best guest experience platform does more than look good in a demo. They reduce front desk workload, streamline guest communication, and provide instant support whenever guests need it.

5. Hospitality AI and Automation

Beyond guest-facing AI, look at back-of-house automation. Housekeeping scheduling, maintenance request routing, staff communication platforms, and predictive analytics tools all fall in this bucket.

One category worth paying close attention to: agentic AI. This is AI that doesn't just answer questions — it takes actions. It can look up a reservation, update a booking, escalate a complaint, send a follow-up message, and log the interaction, all without human input.

This is where hospitality AI is headed. Some vendors will have early versions of it. Most will have a roadmap slide. Ask what's actually live versus what's coming in Q3.

6. Cybersecurity and Data Protection

Not the most exciting part of the show. Still one of the most important.

Hotels handle payment data, passport information, and guest personal details every day. A data breach doesn't just cost money — it damages the trust guests place in your property.

At HITEC 2026, you'll find vendors focused on PCI compliance, payment security, fraud prevention, and data privacy. If you don't have a recent security audit or a clear data protection policy, this is a good time to ask questions.

Even if your property isn't big enough to have a dedicated IT team, you need to know how the tools you use handle guest data, who has access to it, and what happens if something goes wrong.

7. Hospitality Startups and New Entrants

Don't skip the startup areas and innovation showcases. Some of the most interesting tools at HITEC don't come from the biggest booths.

For every startup you talk to, ask:

• What specific problem does this solve, and what did hotels do before you existed?

• Which PMS systems do you support?

• What does a typical implementation look like?

• Can you show me a real hotel using this today?
  

Startups are often more flexible than established vendors. They're also riskier. The questions above help you tell the difference between a company with a real product and one that's still figuring it out.

Key Technology Trends to Watch at HITEC 2026

These themes run through most of what you'll see on the floor this year.

Generative AI moving from pilot to standard. Hotels that tested AI tools in 2024 are now asking how to scale them across the whole guest journey. Vendors who can't show you actual guest conversation data — real response accuracy numbers, not just feature slides — aren't where the serious operators will be spending money.

Unified guest messaging. Guests use WhatsApp, email, web chat, and SMS. Often in the same day for the same stay. The platforms that manage all of these from one dashboard, without requiring a separate tool for each channel, are where the industry is headed. Look for that consolidation.

Hyper-personalization. Not just "Hello, [First Name]." Using booking history, stay preferences, and spend data to make offers feel relevant instead of automatic. Some platforms do this well. Most just say they do.

Automation-first operations. The labor shortage didn't go away. Hotels are building workflows that reduce manual steps — not to cut staff, but so staff can spend time on the guest interactions that actually need a human. This is a real shift in how properties are thinking about labor.

Real-time analytics. Occupancy, revenue, and guest sentiment visible on a live dashboard. Not a report you run at the end of the week. If a vendor is still offering you weekly exports as the main way to see your data, that's worth noting.

Myma AI at HITEC 2026: Booth 3434

One company to visit while you're there is Myma AI. We will be at Booth 3434 on the show floor — look for the pink. (We are also running a second presence at Booth 3842.)

Myma AI handles guest messaging across WhatsApp, SMS, email, phone, and web in 50-plus languages. It connects to your PMS and runs the guest journey from booking confirmation through post-checkout review requests — without your team managing each individual conversation.

What separates them from a lot of what you'll see in the AI messaging category: the people who built it have actually worked in hotels. Front desk. Ops. The 2 a.m. calls from guests that don't fit any script. That operational background shows in how the product handles edge cases — the weird questions, the late-night requests, the guests who switch languages halfway through a conversation.

Their team at HITEC is specifically inviting operators to put it through its paces. Bring the hard questions. The ones your night audit team gets when nobody senior is available. See if it holds up.

If AI guest communication is on your list at this show — and it probably should be — Booth 3434 is worth the walk.

Questions Every Hotel Buyer Should Ask at HITEC 2026

Before you walk into any booth, have these ready:

1. How long does implementation actually take? 

2. Which PMS systems do you integrate with natively?

3. What measurable results can a property like mine expect in the first 90 days?

4. How much staff time does this save per week?

5. What's included in support — and what costs extra?

6. How is guest data stored, accessed, and protected?

7. What does the AI do when it doesn't know the answer?

That last question is especially important for any AI product. A good system knows its limits and escalates gracefully. A bad one makes something up. You want to see that distinction in a live demo, not read about it in a brochure.

How to Use Your Time Well at HITEC

A few practical tips from someone who has walked this floor before:

Plan your must-see list before you arrive. The exhibitor directory is live at hitec.org. Mark the booths that match your current priorities. Build in time for unexpected discoveries, but anchor your schedule to your actual needs.

Bring your real problems. Don't go to demos and just watch. Tell the vendor: "Here's what's happening at my property right now. Show me how your product handles it." That conversation is more useful than a polished slide deck.

Talk to other operators. The hallways and networking events at HITEC are as valuable as the exhibit floor. Find people running properties similar to yours and ask what they're actually using and what they wish they hadn't bought.

Take notes on who follows up. After the show, notice which vendors reach out with something useful versus who just sends a generic email blast. How a company communicates after HITEC tells you a lot about how they'll treat you as a customer.

Final Thoughts

HITEC 2026 is the best chance you'll get this year to see hotel technology in person — not in a product video, not in a marketing email, but live, with someone who can answer your questions on the spot.

The hotels that get the most out of this show aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the most people on the floor. They're the ones who walked in knowing what problem they were trying to solve, asked the questions that vendors don't love answering, and left with fewer open questions than they started with.

San Antonio, June 15–18. It's worth the trip.

HITEC 2026 runs June 15–18 at the Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. For registration and the full exhibitor list, visit hitec.org.