For years, hotel technology evolved through a gradual accumulation of systems. A PMS sat at the center, with layers added over time for distribution, revenue management, reputation, guest messaging, upsells, housekeeping, payments, digital check-in, keyless entry and analytics. Each addition solved a real operational problem. Over time, however, the stack began to look less like an intentional architecture and more like a messy pile — functional, but increasingly difficult to manage, secure and adjust without knocking something else out of place.
Anyone who has seen a housekeeping cart mid-shift understands the difference. A loose pile of towels technically works, but it is inefficient and unstable. A neatly folded stack takes the same components and organizes them so each layer supports the next. That is the shift now underway in hotel technology. IT leaders are not removing systems so much as refolding them into cleaner, more deliberate stacks designed to work together.
This is not a slowdown in innovation. It is a response to fragmentation becoming an operational tax. A recent research study conducted by Starfleet Research found that fewer than one in four hotels have fully integrated core systems. In practice, most teams are still reconciling data across PMS, CRS, RMS, POS, loyalty and guest experience platforms, then wondering why automation, AI and real-time decisioning never quite scale.
What is changing is the buying logic. Instead of asking which tool best solves a single workflow, hotel IT organizations are increasingly focused on how systems fit together across the full environment. The goal is not fewer tools for their own sake, but a stack that is easier to govern, secure, upgrade and support across properties, brands, and regions.
You can see this thinking reflected in how enterprise technology providers are positioning their platforms. Companies like IBS Software have emphasized unified, modular architectures that span core hospitality operations rather than isolated point solutions. The appeal for hotel groups is not simply feature depth, but the ability to orchestrate complex workflows across commercial, operational and guest-facing systems without creating brittle integrations.
In fact, you can see this shift clearly in what large hotel groups are publicly prioritizing. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has highlighted its global rollout of Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud across full-service hotels following pilot programs, positioning the move as a long-term strategic investment for franchisees rather than a simple system replacement. Accor has selected OPERA Cloud Sales and Event Management as part of a broader OPERA Cloud deployment, emphasizing cross-departmental integration and unified data for meetings and events revenue across thousands of properties. Minor Hotels has cited OPERA Cloud deployments in the context of operational efficiency and staffing productivity, including measurable gains at flagship properties.
The same consolidation pattern shows up in parts of the stack where interoperability has historically been painful. POS is a prime example. Food and beverage technology often lives in a parallel universe, with its own data model, user permissions and reporting structure. Shiji Group’s Infrasys Cloud POS reaching a deployment milestone within Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s estate is a sign that global brands are treating POS standardization as part of enterprise architecture, not just property-level procurement. Shiji’s broader platform positioning is also visible in deployments such as The Peninsula Hotels, which implemented a Shiji enterprise platform to manage core operations across its portfolio.
Guest experience technology is consolidating as well. Hotels are no longer satisfied with a standalone messaging tool, a separate digital check-in solution, and an independent payments capture flow that leaves finance teams untangling reconciliation issues. Preferred Hotels & Resorts selecting Canary Technologies as an exclusive guest management solution across more than 650 properties is a clear example of category compression. The move reflects a preference for an integrated guest journey layer that can be governed centrally, rolled out consistently and measured across a global portfolio.
Capital markets are reinforcing the same thesis. Mews’s recent $300 million funding round was positioned explicitly around accelerating what it calls “agentic AI” and autonomous hotel operations. Automation is only as effective as the data model, event architecture, and integration discipline underneath it. Whether or not one embraces the terminology, the architectural implication is clear. Legacy, fragmented environments cannot support the next generation of automation.
Commercial technology is consolidating as well, and not just inside the PMS. Cendyn’s repositioning and consolidation of its portfolio into an integrated Revenue Growth Platform reflects a deliberate move away from stitched-together commercial tools. Lighthouse, formerly OTA Insight, has followed a similar path, combining benchmarking, pricing intelligence, and commercial analytics into a unified platform designed to reduce surface area for revenue teams.
Upselling provides one of the clearest windows into the consolidation trend because it sits at the intersection of guest communications, payments, and revenue. Plusgrade’s acquisition of Oaky reflects a broader effort to own more of the pre-arrival and on-property monetization layer. At the same time, other vendors are embedding upsell capabilities into broader guest experience platforms that include messaging, digital check-in, and payment authorization. Architecturally, upsell is migrating from a standalone widget into the guest engagement layer and, in some cases, into the PMS ecosystem itself.
None of this means the best-of-breed era is over. It means best-of-breed now has to behave differently. A point solution that cannot integrate cleanly into the system of record is becoming harder to justify, even if it wins feature comparisons. “Easy integration” has been promised for years, but the operational definition of easy is much stricter in 2026. It means stable APIs, real-time data synchronization where required, enterprise-grade identity and access controls, predictable release cycles and clear vendor accountability when integrations fail.
AI is accelerating this shift rather than slowing it. Hotel IT decision makers are increasingly skeptical of standalone AI tools. Many have seen pilots stall because models could not access authoritative guest profiles, could not safely write back to operational systems, or introduced security and compliance risks. As a result, the most credible AI strategies today are embedded strategies. Cendyn has explicitly tied consolidation to AI-enabled outcomes. Mews has linked its AI roadmap to the need for hotels to move off legacy systems. Duve’s recent funding similarly reflects demand for unified guest platforms rather than fragmented engagement tools.
For hotel IT leaders, the takeaway is not to consolidate everything indiscriminately. It is to consolidate intentionally, with governance as a first-class requirement. The competitive landscape is increasingly shaped by who can articulate a clear system of record, control data flows, enforce security standards, and evolve the stack without introducing fragility.
The shift from systems to stacks is happening quietly because it is being decided in procurement meetings, integration workshops, brand standard reviews, and portfolio rollouts one cluster at a time. But the direction is unmistakable. Hotels are moving away from disconnected tools and toward intentional, interoperable stacks where the architecture itself becomes a source of competitive advantage. For the hotel IT leaders accountable for uptime, security and operational reality, this shift is long overdue.
