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Travel and Hospitality Tech Outlook: Specials Magazine
Pool halls have always run on two currencies; time and tabs. For decades, staff balanced both with pen and paper. A clerk noted when a table opened, calculated the hours at checkout and added a separate bar slip before the guest left. When the 1986 film The Color of Money revived interest in upscale billiard rooms, technology followed, but only in fragments. Venues adopted one point-of-sale (POS) system for table rentals and another for food and beverage, creating inefficiencies for both businesses and guests. It came to a head at the register. Staff crosschecked table numbers, playing time and bar orders while lines formed. Guests waited, questioned the numbers and left frustrated. Owners were frustrated by having to stitch together two sets of reports to determine whether they made a profit. J.R. Calvert, owner, founder and CEO of Definitive Synergy , experienced this disconnect from behind the counter. While completing his engineering degrees and training as a professional pool player, he ran a room whose owner was often away. Daily operations revealed something that generic POS systems and fragmented venue software often missed. For the guest, it was one night out. Behind the counter, table rentals, kitchen orders, bar service, retail and memberships followed separate workflows that still had to come together.
Smart Hospitality
Hotel operators today must balance operational efficiency with the guest experience. Empty rooms present opportunities for energy savings, while occupied rooms must remain comfortable. Managing both requires technology that responds to room status, works with existing systems and adapts to different property requirements. VDA Telkonet combines energy management systems (EMS) with guest room management systems (GRMS) within one hospitality-focused ecosystem. The EMS uses room status from the property management system to deepen setbacks in unsold rooms while maintaining comfort in sold rooms. This flexibility lets owners combine capabilities across property types, investment levels and guest expectations. Its expertise stems from the 2021 merger of VDA and Telkonet. VDA contributes European expertise in guest room management systems, while U.S.-based Telkonet specializes in energy management. With decades of experience in hospitality technology, VDA Telkonet has installed its solutions in over one million rooms across more than 60 countries, adapting to different regional requirements, standards and design expectations.
Pool Deck Surfacing
Since 2006, Deckology has been turning hotel and resort pool decks into functional and visually striking spaces that elevate aesthetics and guest experience. Rather than viewing the pool deck as a functional surface, it helps properties turn these spaces into extensions of their brand-safe, durable, and visually engaging areas that enhance the guest experience. For Deckology, the pool deck is a high-value amenity and a focal point for guest interaction, relaxation, and brand expression, extending the hotel’s story beyond its walls. Trusted by leading hospitality names nationwide, it promotes outdoor environments through engineering precision, design innovation, and long-term performance. Deckology’s leading innovation, AquaFlex®, reflects its commitment to performance and design. Combining durability, safety, and design, the advanced surfacing solution tackles ongoing issues that hospitality properties encounter, including slippery surfaces, worn finishes, and costly upkeep. Its advanced composition offers slip resistance, cooling comfort underfoot, impact absorption, and chlorine and UV exposure resistance, ensuring safety and longevity. With 21 mixable colors, the material allows each property to align its deck design with its brand identity. Custom pathways, logo inlays, and vibrant color zones create distinctive visual experiences, installed without demolition to minimize disruption and reduce downtime. “Our whole goal is delivering a strategic upgrade that will enhance that guest experience and property value,” says Sean West, vice president of commercial sales at Deckology.
Revenue Management
Challenges to Data Analysis in Hospitality Industry
Mike Kuzmar, Vice President Business Intelligence and First Analytics, First Hospitality
Marketing Solutions
Transforming Travel Marketing: How GenAI and Data-Driven Strategies Shape the Future
Kurt Weinsheimer, President/GM, Hotel Property, Sojern
Software and Technology
Integrating Wellness into the Luxury Guest Experience, Beyond the Spa Menu
Taylor Fields, Corporate Director of Spa, Wellness & Retail, PCH Hotels & Resorts
Business Operations
Leading It Beyond The Technology
Edson Silva, Director of Information Technology, Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort
Smart Hospitality
The Leadership Behind High-Performing Hospitality Teams
Ahmad Alameh, Executive Kitchen Manager, Anani Hospitality Group
IN MY OPINION
Hotel and Restaurant Management
Redefining the Future of Hotel Technology
Josh Dow, Vice President, Hotel Technology Strategy & Services, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts [NYSE: WH]
LAST WORD
Software and Technology
Elevating Guest Experience through People-First Leadership in Bespoke Hospitality
Ignacio Daponte, Hotel Manager, Sonesta Hotels
IN FOCUS
Enhancing Business Performance with Smart Hospitality Tech
Smart hospitality technology connects operations, improves efficiency, supports data-driven decisions, and strengthens consistent guest service.
Billiards and Entertainment POS Platforms: Transforming Operations and Guest Experiences
Billiards and entertainment POS platforms improve hospitality operations, reservations, payments, inventory, customer engagement, and venue profitability.
EDITORIAL
Connected Innovation for Exceptional Guest Experiences
This is the common thread running through this edition of Travel & Hospitality Tech Outlook. From entertainment venue management and energy efficiency to wellness-inspired vacations and artificial intelligence-enabled marketing, the featured companies and industry experts have shown the ways in which purpose-driven innovation can be made successful for better results.
Definitive Synergy, recognized as Billiards and Entertainment POS Platform of the Year 2026, brings table rentals, food and beverage, payments, memberships and reporting into one platform. Its approach illustrates how integrated technology can simplify daily operations while giving businesses greater visibility into performance.
VDA Telkonet, named Top Smart Hospitality Technology Solutions 2026, combines energy management and guest room controls to reduce waste without compromising comfort.
The experience itself is also evolving. Taylor Fields, Corporate Director of Spa, Wellness & Retail at PCH Hotels & Resorts, explores how wellness can extend beyond traditional spa services into guestrooms through sleep-focused amenities, wellness suites and personalized offers. Kurt Weinsheimer, President/GM, Hotel Property at Sojern, examines how machine learning, generative AI and first-party data are transforming travel marketing.
Together, these perspectives point to a more connected future where technology makes operations smarter, experiences more relevant and business decisions more informed.
Explore the edition further to discover how hospitality innovators are connecting technology, operational intelligence and guest-focused strategies to create lasting value.
