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Travel and Hospitality Tech Outlook: Specials Magazine
Josh Dow is Vice President of Hotel Technology Strategy & Services at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchisor. With over two decades of experience, he’s helped drive a number of complex technology transformations at Wyndham, including among others, the integration of more than 8,000 hotels onto a unified cloud-based security and reservation system, reducing cost and complexity in hotel operations. Passionate about hospitality, he shared his valuable thoughts for the 2025 edition of Travel and Hospitality Tech Outlook about the industry and the future of hotel technology. Evolving through Experience I have been fortunate to spend nearly my entire career with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, starting back in 2003. At the time, I was brought in as a temporary project resource to help modernize connectivity and perform system upgrades. It was a crash course in both technology and hospitality. Since then, I have touched nearly every part of our IT organization: technical support, PMS installation, project and product management, quality assurance, development, infrastructure, architecture, and now strategy. Today, I lead an incredible team responsible for property technology strategy, global systems deployment, and AI-powered contact center solutions. “MCP is an emerging open standard that allows AI systems to securely connect to live data and services. APIs are the digital connectors that expose capabilities like rates, inventory, and loyalty data” Travel and technology are my two greatest passions, so this role represents the perfect intersection of business impact and personal interest.
Top Travel Spend Optimization Solutions 2026
Travel management companies (TMCs) operate in a complex and demanding environment where operational efficiency plays a critical role. Many organizations manage a combination of legacy systems, manual processes, and high service expectations, all while navigating tight margins. These challenges can absorb time and resources that could otherwise be directed toward innovation, service enhancement, or client engagement. As pressures continue to build across the industry, finding ways to improve efficiency without compromising service has become an increasingly important part of staying competitive. Oversee was built specifically to address this reality. Its core mission is simple but critical: to empower TMCs unlock meaningful savings and operational efficiency, so those gains can be reinvested into better service, stronger relationships, and more competitive offerings. For more than 11 years, the company has served TMCs and travel buyers as a behind-the-scenes operational partner. It embeds directly into existing workflows and technology stacks, enabling savings and automating workflows without disrupting travelers or agents. At the center of its platform is a customer-centric mandate to help TMCs deliver more value to travel buyers - without changing how they travel. Oversee’s AI-based air and hotel reshop technology continuously monitors bookings after purchase, identifying opportunities to secure lower prices without altering itineraries or creating friction. Often referred to as travel price assurance, this capability remains a primary reason companies turn to Oversee. Crucially, reshop does not operate in isolation. It is supported by a real-time analytics suite that audits negotiated rates, sourcing performance, and contract utilization. By comparing agreed pricing against actual booking behavior, Oversee helps TMCs and travel buyers ensure that negotiated programs deliver measurable value in practice. .
Laundromat POS and Management Software
Wash-Dry-Fold POS helps independent laundromats transform into modern, efficient and scalable businesses. Designed by a laundromat operator, it simplifies operations with easy-to-use software that brings clarity and efficiency in drop-off services. Founder Brian Henderson experienced the everyday challenges operators face while running a family-owned chain of laundromats. He dealt with clunky software, staff confusion, theft risks, and poor order tracking, all of which made managing multiple stores difficult. “Our focus from day one has been on meeting the real-world needs of laundromat owners, making life simpler for them, their staff and customers,” says Henderson. Laundromat owners gain greater control and clarity as soon as they install Wash-Dry-Fold POS. The software acts as a virtual manager, tracking every order with time stamps, labels and real-time updates from wash to fold. Accessible on phone and desktop, it lets owners instantly see who’s clocked in, which machines are running and how many orders are in progress. It’s like having a manager in the pocket, anytime, anywhere. It’s not just the technology that makes the process seamless; it’s the people behind it. The Wash-Dry-Fold POS team walks each owner through a tailored onboarding experience, offering training that fits their store’s unique workflow. The system’s intuitive interface with large, easy-to-read buttons and a guided, step-bystep workflow keeps training time minimal. Staff can quickly learn the process and operate with confidence from day one. From Click to Clean, a Seamless Laundry Journey Successful laundromats meet customer expectations for speed, accuracy and simplicity. Wash-Dry-Fold POS delivers on all three from the moment laundry is dropped off. To ensure no preference is overlooked, each order includes personalized notes such as folding preferences, detergent choices and temperature settings, all printed clearly. These instructions stay consistent, even if another attendant finishes the order. Once completed, the system sends an automatic text message to notify the customer their laundry is ready for pickup, streamlining communication and ensuring a seamless, professional service.
FF&E Spec Writing Software
Specsources equips interior design firms with turnkey solutions for specification, purchasing and collaboration at scale. It enables teams working on complex hospitality and workplace projects to optimize spec writing and manage materials as well as furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) from early budgeting and product selection to reporting. It has become the platform of choice for most of the top 100 interior design giants. Consistency is a key challenge for design firms managing multiple clients and evolving requirements. Different item formats, location-specific data and collaboration across remote teams can lead to duplication and costly errors. Specsources addresses this through a unified workflow, ensuring all location-based specifications and vendor communication are organized, tracked and report-ready. “Our goal for the past twenty-five years has been to simplify workflow, give unmatched flexibility and ensure ease of use,” says Wade Ballance, principal. Specsources’ core platform, SpecWeb, is designed to reflect the natural rhythm of a designer’s workflow. It supports every step with tools tailored to project needs. Templates for clients, catalogs for favorite products and address books for vendor management give designers a head start by reducing manual input and repetition. SpecWeb adapts to any design environment. Firms can build templates based on client or office standards, link each manufacturer to its approved vendor and track approvals through a system designed to mirror their real-world process. Whether creating square-foot budgets or performing submittal checks, each task fits naturally into the workflow. For Revit teams, Specsources developed SpecBIM, a direct bridge between Revit models and the spec book. This integration syncs quantities, areas and room data, even in complex Revit projects where multiple models are linked or furniture is nested within another Revit family. This allows designers to track every item without toggling between tools or risking inconsistencies in documentation. SpecGrab, Specsources’ browser extension, solves a major challenge for designers by efficiently transferring product data from any manufacturer’s website into their spec book. With SpecGrab, designers can pull images, product specs and PDFs directly into the spec book in seconds. AI further accelerates this process by learning the structure of vendor sites, making repeat imports possible with a single click.
CXO INSIGHTS
Transforming Cruise Experiences with Innovative Technologies
Anders Karlsson, Vice President, Hotel Operations, Virgin Voyages
Challenges to Data Analysis in Hospitality Industry
Mike Kuzmar, Vice President Business Intelligence and First Analytics, First Hospitality
Gambling Devices
Chris Garrow, Gaming Operations Director at Prairie Band Casino & Resort
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions Delivers Beyond Expectation Hospitality to its Guests
Karolyn Doro, Corporate Director of Rooms, Kalahari Resorts and Conventions
AI, Automation and the Future of Relational Storytelling in Hospitality
Donna Herto, Communications and Hospitality Professional, Nemacolin
IN FOCUS
Travel Spend Optimization Solutions: Enhancing Corporate Cost Control
Travel spend optimization solutions improve visibility, enforce policy compliance, reduce expenses, and enhance data-driven decision-making across corporate travel programs.
Elevating Travel Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Spend Optimization
A structured approach aligning compliance standardization outcomes integration to control corporate travel costs, enhance governance and improve value enterprise-wide.
EDITORIAL
Operational Leverage in Modern Travel
Travel and hospitality organizations are operating under sustained margin pressure while guest expectations continue to rise. Operational efficiency is no longer a back-office concern but a competitive differentiator that directly influences service quality and profitability. This edition of Travel and Hospitality Tech Outlook examines how technology and disciplined analytics are helping the industry do more without disrupting the traveler experience.
Recognized as Top Travel Spend Optimization Solutions 2026, Oversee is redefining how travel management companies approach productivity and savings. Built specifically for TMC environments, Oversee embeds directly into existing workflows to automate repetitive tasks and unlock measurable savings. Its AI-based post-booking air and hotel price monitoring technology continuously reviews reservations after purchase, identifying lower rates without altering itineraries or creating friction for travelers. Complemented by real-time analytics that audit negotiated rates and sourcing performance, the platform ensures that savings programs deliver tangible value in practice. By reclaiming agent time and reducing nonrevenue generating tasks, Oversee enables TMCs to expand capacity without increasing headcount, reinforcing a central premise that efficiency and service can advance together.
Leadership perspectives extend this theme into hospitality operations. Christopher Hammond, Corporate Director of Food & Beverage at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions, emphasizes that execution excellence begins with people, scalable processes and curated experiences that elevate group events beyond expectation. Mike Kuzmar, Vice President of Revenue Analytics at First Hospitality, highlights the importance of data validation, long-term consistency and cross-department collaboration to ensure revenue insights remain reliable and actionable.
Across travel spend optimization, culinary operations and revenue analytics, one principle stands out. Technology delivers value when it enhances judgment, strengthens teams and supports measurable outcomes. We invite readers to explore how disciplined automation and data-driven leadership are shaping the next phase of competitive advantage in travel and hospitality. Let us know your thoughts!
