AI won't replace the hotelier, it gives them the tool to execute

Javier Ortiz, partner at Sextaplanta, made it clear in his latest talk: technology is not the strategy, it's the tool to implement it. Coming from someone who has spent years advising hotels, that should calm those who see every new software as a threat or a sunk cost.

Ortiz points out that the barriers to adopting new technology in hotels are not only economic or technical. There's a management component that weighs more: how you select, implement and use it. Complex integrations, hidden costs, lack of technical knowledge and ROI doubts appear when the team doesn't have a clear goal for the tool, not because the tool is bad.

My take: the hotel industry still confuses buying technology with having a digital strategy. They are not the same. Buying a new PMS is not strategy, it's a purchase decision. Strategy is knowing what problem you want to solve, for which customer, and with which process. Only then does technology make sense.

The good news is that this view opens a door: technology can be the enabler of a well-thought strategy, not the other way around. The hotelier who sits down to define their business model before signing a contract with a vendor is already ahead.