Why Hospitality Still Needs People in an AI World

What happens when hospitality gets technology right? 

In this episode of the IT Naturally Podcast, Julie Bishop is joined by Jane Pendlebury, CEO of HOSPA, to explore how hotels and hospitality businesses are balancing technology, people and guest experience in 2026. 

From AI and automation to sustainability, cyber security and changing guest expectations, Jane shares what hospitality leaders are really talking about right now and why the best technology should free employees to focus on people, not replace them. 

The conversation covers: 

• Why hospitality is under huge cost pressure in 2026 
• How AI and automation are changing hotel operations 
• Why guest choice matters more than ever 
• The role of culture in delivering exceptional hospitality 
• Sustainability challenges for hotels and hospitality businesses 
• What hospitality still gets wrong about technology 
• Why cyber security and guest trust are critical 
• The rise of experiential hospitality and local community connections 

Plus, Jane shares brilliant real-world examples from across the hospitality sector, including how some hotels are creating happier teams, better guest experiences and more sustainable operations. 

Find out more about HOSPA and connect with Jane via the links below. 

Connect with Jane on LinkedIn

Follow HOSPA on LinkedIn

HOSPA website

Visit the IT Naturally website

Follow IT Naturally on LinkedIn

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn

Transcript

Julie Bishop (00:05)
Whether you work in hospitality, travel or technology, you're going to get so much from today's conversation.

One of the biggest takeaways for me is that the best technology in hospitality isn't about replacing people. It should be about creating space so you can have better human connection, giving better service and then a better experience for both the guests and for the employees.

We're also going to talk honestly about the pressure hotels are facing right now

from sustainability

but also cost and staffing challenges and where technology can genuinely help rather than hinder hospitality.

I'm really pleased today that our guest is Jane Pendlebury, the CEO of HOSPA.

Julie Bishop (00:43)
So Jane, for anyone who doesn't know HOSPA, can you tell us a little 

bit about the organisation and what your role is?

Jane Pendlebury (00:49)
Yes, absolutely.

So we're a UK based membership organisation. We grew out of BAHA, which was the British Association of Hotel Accountants. So we have a lot of finance members based on that legacy. But really, we look after the commercial layer in a hospitality business. So finance, technology, revenue management, marketing, owners and owners reps. And our tagline is that we help hospitality decision makers to be the best they can in their careers, the best network.

best informed and the best developed. So by doing that, we do professional development, we have networking events, we hold an annual conference, webinars, and we write guides on various things when appropriate.

Julie Bishop (01:31)
Brilliant, and what's your role, Jane? What do you do?

Jane Pendlebury (01:34)
I am the CEO. I joined HOSPA as a volunteer, well actually BAHA as a volunteer many years then I went on the payroll about 12 years ago, running just membership and events, and then I became CEO just  10 years ago.

Julie Bishop (01:51)
I love meeting other female CEOs. There aren't enough of us around.

Jane Pendlebury (01:51)
Thank you.

Yeah,

No, neither of us are called David. Isn't there a stat?

Julie Bishop (01:57)
No, David or John, fantastic.

And

been in the hospitality industry for a long time. Tell us about how that's changed over the years you've been working there.

Jane Pendlebury (02:11)
Yes, I mean, hospitality is one of the oldest careers or  one of the oldest professions,  or industries ever since the time began. there were the pubs and whatever where people used to go. So fundamentally, I don't think things have changed. But recently, we've seen quite a lot of developments. The pandemic did actually change things. Well, for every industry, I think, but for hospitality, it changed things. But I think in more recent years, it has been a lot of the technology advancements.

Most recently AI, obviously that's having an impact. We've seen changes in sustainability. We've seen lots of pressures on costs from national minimum wage, national insurance business rates, paying back the COVID loans, lots and lots of sort of small changes. But fundamentally, I think the industry remains the same. We're looking after people that aren't at home for whatever reason. They might be travelling, they might be going out for a celebratory dinner, or they might

be having their kitchen replaced and need to go out for a meal.

Julie Bishop (03:13)
And what are the things that the leaders are talking about at the moment? What's top of their list at the moment?

Jane Pendlebury (03:21)
Right now

in 2026, very, very, you know, sadly, it is the increased costs. It's those employment costs which are really damaging lots of businesses. And we've seen that with pubs more than with probably any other aspect of hospitality where the stat at the moment, beginning of May 2026 is two per day have closed down just this year. And even the chains who were much more resilient in the pub world, they're also suffering.

So it's a tough old time and it is those increased costs just to keep businesses afloat without charging ridiculous prices for the guests that are out there. And it's hitting luxury a little less probably, but it is going across the board.

Julie Bishop (04:06)
It's tough and we've seen that in industries that we support as well. The costs have made a massive difference in high people industries.

Now, IT naturally, we believe technology is all about people and behind every IT issue and every system there's people that are relying on it and I think you've got a very similar perspective.

But you were talking to me before about technology that frees people to focus on people. Tell me a bit more about that.

Jane Pendlebury (04:40)
Yes, this is where I see the massive benefits of technology. If you take an average hotel, there's a lot of technology going on in the background, whether that is AI or robotic process automation, or just a lovely system that's making things easier to use, which is getting rid of some of the more laborious grunt work of processing data,

where it's easy to simplify through some kind of clever technology. It's brilliant to have that done, freeing up that member of staff to just be out and about chatting to the guests. I would say most people join hospitality because they enjoy that aspect of it. They want to be with people, they want to be making people enjoy their stay, making them happy, whatever it might be. So that back office work enables the personal touch to be delivered at the front desk.

Julie Bishop (05:32)
Exactly and I remember when I worked in aviation when self-service kiosks arrived in airports everybody feared that jobs would disappear, people wouldn't be there but actually the role of the people working changed. So what are you seeing in hospitality? Are you seeing jobs disappear?

Jane Pendlebury (05:54)
No, I don't think so. Certainly it's not redundancies as a result of tech. I think perhaps there might be the odd example where they haven't had to recruit somebody if there's been some natural loss of staff. But I think you're absolutely right. The role changes slightly. The CitizenM hotels, I don't know if anyone's ever stayed there, but they're a brilliant example of it's all automated at the front desk. You go in, you can check yourself in, you can print your own keycard.

But there is always, but always somebody stood there just sort of welcoming you, making sure you're all right. If you're struggling, they'll be right there helping you.  And I think that's as good a service as you can get. Because actually, if you really didn't want to use the kiosk, you could just engage straight with that person and they would do it for you. There was a lot of resistance, again, in the luxury sector. But I see massive benefits in giving guests choice, whether they want to engage with the tech or whether they

don't and at that luxury end you ought to offer that choice. And there's certain bits probably that you will never hit a five-star Park Lane restaurant such as a QR code to order your bottle of wine. That'll probably never happen. But there's a great benefit to having a QR code if you're in a busy pub and you want to order a coffee after your meal and you don't have to get up and go and queue at the bar. So I think there's massive benefits to things like kiosks, QR codes, whatever it might be

for the guests.

Julie Bishop (07:22)
Yeah, I remember a long time ago when I was working in aviation, they did some research and the highest value customers were the ones that wanted the least touch points. So the guy who's traveling first class, week after week after week going to New York, he does not want someone to check him  in. He does not want someone to ask him what wine he wants. He just wants everything to happen. And he's quite happy to use his own technology. And I'm saying he, of course, there are women.

But unfortunately, it still mainly men in that bracket. There seemed to be a very strong link between the more you paid, the less you wanted to be served. And the people that wanted the most service were the people who went on holiday once a year and were a little bit out of their depth with what they were doing and they needed the support.

Jane Pendlebury (08:09)
Yes.

Julie Bishop (08:11)
 It's not what you expect sometimes.

Jane Pendlebury (08:14)
No, I think that's probably true across hospitality, apart from when you are in a lovely fine dining restaurant where part of the experience is probably the sommelier talking you through which wine would go best paired with your starter

or whatever it might be.  And I often say this with a business person, when they're traveling and checking into a hotel, they're one person, that very same person might come back the following weekend with.

family in tow, children in tow, and they're an entirely different person. So you just have to treat everybody as the individual and just hopefully that's why you need people to react to their facial expression. If they're like, I'm not interested in you telling me where the swimming pool is because they're not going to use it. But at the weekend, that might be their top priority. So we'll be engaging and wanting to find out more. People, very important.

Julie Bishop (09:06)
Very, very, very important. And you mentioned earlier a little bit about AI. There's a big concern, isn't there, that if we use too much AI, some of those entry-level jobs, the junior person in finance, the junior person in HR who's learning the basics, learning how to do the operations, if they get replaced by AI, how will the leaders be formed in the future? How do you view that?

Jane Pendlebury (09:35)
Yeah,

I think it's a very valid point. If you don't understand how it's all working at the sort of the grassroots level, then it's going to be very hard to make decisions when you're at the top making those big decisions. I always think of the example in hotels many years ago, we're probably going back sort of 40, 50 years, there was something called a Witney board, which basically was a great big board where you put in the

person that was staying in which room and you could move them around as their arrival and departure and all of those things. And then obviously came the implementation of computers. And it's very hard now for anyone who's never used a Witney board or a manual diary, whatever it is, to switch from a full-on, full-blown computer where it's allocating rooms, it's telling you who's due to check out today, who's due to arrive and all those bits and pieces to do that manually

because it's just never done anymore. It's all computerised. So I guess there's always going to be a role for learning what the AI does. And I suspect that people that are coming in will be able to look at that AI and figure out very quickly what it's doing and get another AI program to do whatever is missing. So probably it'll be all right, but it's an interesting thought, isn't it? That those basic levels of knowledge we're handing over to a computer.

Julie Bishop (10:59)
And maybe it's a generational thing that we think we need to know what goes behind it. The people joining now, they're all digitally native, aren't they? They've been brought up with that. And maybe it's just an old fashioned way of thinking, thinking you need to know what sits behind it, because that's what we grew up with.

Jane Pendlebury (11:19)
Yes, that's probably, we only have to look at the next generation coming through. They are very different in the workplace than we were if you wind the clock back a couple of years.

Julie Bishop (11:31)
Five or three, something like that. When we started out.

Jane Pendlebury (11:32)
Yeah.

Julie Bishop (11:36)
Sustainability, we talked about this before, sustainability is a really huge topic in hospitality.

but I always feel a little bit skeptical about how deeply embedded it is. So what's really happening with sustainability and hospitality?

Jane Pendlebury (11:51)
That's a very interesting question. There are some brilliant examples of where it has been done absolutely fantastically from the independent sort of one-off hotels through to the chains. I think when you look at the bigger global chains, they are looking at the big picture and they've had people dedicated to sort of all aspects of ESG for many years. So they have been able to implement

certain things from a global perspective, it becomes the standard at every hotel and it becomes part of, you know, they have to abide by those regulations in order to fly the Hilton flag or whatever it is. 

They're privileged in that they've got somebody or a whole team focused on it and are able to advise . How that filters down sometimes to the sharp end, it probably is very reliant on the local

general manager to make sure that it is implemented properly and that the waste is being dealt with appropriately.  The independent sector, I think it's much harder for them, but there's some shining examples. There's a hotel in the Cotswolds called Whatley Manor where the owners were very, very focused on becoming a sustainable hotel, and so we're able to invest and you go there and it's just the most perfect example of everything. Lights going off when you leave the room and

no plastic and the waste being dealt with and food waste being completely measured and sorted. Through to exclusive hotels who are B Corp. They've done that. EarthCheck is another very popular one across the chains. I think everyone's trying. There's certainly been lots of changes, some smaller than others, but I think everyone's working towards the bigger goal.

 I think sometimes it's very hard just to step on to that train to take you down that path. That first bit is quite a daunting prospect. So I always say, we'll just start with some small things, start using clear rubbish bags so that you can see what people are throwing out and that your waste is being appropriately recycled or whatever you need to do. Just start. And then once you've got that a little bit into the culture, it should get bigger and bigger. And if you've got somebody in your operation that's really keen, put them in charge

and make them put that into the culture. Every decision should be made through the lens of sustainability if you're doing it right.

Julie Bishop (14:20)
I mean, I love the, if you've got someone keen, put them in charge. We've got an internal team called Econuts and they're various people from across the organisation of different grades and responsibilities who just really care and want to make a difference. And they work together ,they meet sort of once a month, it's about four or five of them that get together. And it's through them that we've started doing,  using re-engineered kits.

Even reselling kit that's secondhand to people that don't. Secondhand sounds terrible but it's refactored, rebuilt but it's not gone to landfill, it's reused because most jobs don't need  powerful computers. There are some jobs that will need it and they might need a new one but all of that stuff's come through our Econuts and it's quite exciting getting the feedback from the bottom of the organisation or from across the organisation. It makes it far more valid than

 just from one person.

Jane Pendlebury (15:20)
Yes, feels very genuine, doesn't it? love the fact that if you are refactoring computers and giving them to the people that need them, that maybe, you know, as you say, don't need the more powerful ones, maybe can't afford the more powerful ones. And that local community is such an important part as well. And that's what makes hotels successful now. So often restaurants where they're sourcing things locally, they're appealing to their local community. You know, even Airbnb, who we don't

you know, as hoteliers we prefer people to stay in hotels. But even Airbnb will often in their guidebook say what the best local restaurants are and what they recommend locally, which is all entirely valid for the

Julie Bishop (15:59)
Do you

that there are some people in hospitality that just at the tough time that we're having at the moment just aren't able to really improve, that they're really struggling in paying their salaries, treating their people properly, that it's fairly difficult to look at beyond that at the moment?

Jane Pendlebury (16:15)
I think that is a good point. And sometimes when you embark on any project where you're being more environmentally aware or ethically aware, there can be some investment needed. And it's tough at the moment for people to do that. But I think small steps, especially when you're starting in  bite-sized chunks, just get it moving as little by little. And that all improves and some of the parts will be bigger.

 And be looking after your people, yes, salary is important, all of those things, but actually recognition reward  through recognition can sometimes be really valuable and a really good way to take people forward. The expense of making some big changes sometimes might be a bit prohibitive, but that doesn't mean that you can't still move forward.

Julie Bishop (17:06)
Absolutely, absolutely. Moving on to people in the way that you just have, hospitality, it's a people first industry. It's people delivering service and great experiences to other people. How important is the culture and the experience that people have to deliver a great guest experience?

Jane Pendlebury (17:31)
Yes, I think it makes all the difference. You could have the most perfect meal, but if it's badly delivered by a grumpy member of staff and not at the right time and whatever, then you haven't enjoyed your experience. Whereas you could have a sort of mediocre meal, but if it's been delivered with a smile and energy, then it makes all the difference. There's a hotel in London where we actually hold our annual conference, it's the Royal Lancaster Hotel, run by the most inspirational

General Manager Sally Beck, who her goal was to make her hotel the happiest hotel in London, which I think some people sort of sneered at a little bit when she first said that thinking it seemed very trivial. But by goodness me, she has achieved that and you only have to walk into that hotel and you can tell that the staff are happy. They're always engaging with you from wherever you are in the hotel, whether you're walking through past a room attendant or even

back of house, when we're running the conference we might go into the kitchen or something and everybody is always brilliant. That culture has definitely come from the top and then it becomes infectious and it's utterly brilliant. I think culture is in some examples more important than actually the quality of what's being delivered, although I would always recommend that you go for your highest quality as well.

Julie Bishop (18:48)
Yes, yes, but that whole thing about being informed and communication is so important. You know, if things do go wrong, then communication sorts out most things, don't they? If you're actually open and

 yeah, makes a massive... We all know, don't we, when we're on a train and it stops

Jane Pendlebury (19:02)
Yes, yes, that, yeah.

Julie Bishop (19:10)
and it happens regularly.

If somebody's telling you, actually, we stopped because blah, blah, blah, and we're to get going again. Then you think, OK, I can relax. I'm not going to go for anywhere for 10 minutes, but that's fine. I know what's happening. If it's just silence, it's grim, isn't it? And I think in a person-to-person industry like hospitality, that communication is so important, isn't it? But you can't blame me. I'm a technologist. I'm going to take us back a bit to technology, because that's what we do at IT Naturally.

Jane Pendlebury (19:24)
Yeah. Yeah.

It really is.

Julie Bishop (19:42)
What do hotels still get wrong about technology? What doesn't work in hotel technology today?

Jane Pendlebury (19:49)
That's an interesting

one. think what happened, again, if I take it back to the pandemic, I always think  stop talking about the pandemic, but what happened there when we reopened was there was a lot of knee-jerk reactions to buying things that suddenly we needed to deliver this, that and the other.  And it was a good example of not thinking through the technology decision, just buying something because it seemed that you needed that for next week.

Now, those decisions don't happen in that way anymore, but still, a good salesperson can wander into a hotel and convince people that they absolutely need something. And if there wasn't a problem in the first place, then you don't need to find a technology solution to deliver a conclusion to it if there wasn't a problem in the first place. I think I love the fact when you've got a strong CTO or whatever in a hotel or a hospitality environment,

where everything has to go through that one person, it prevents those mistakes being made really. If departments just can't go and somebody has gone along to the housekeepers and told them they absolutely need something in order to communicate that when the bedroom is ready, it can be very tempting for the housekeeping department to say absolutely we need this, but if it doesn't link into everything else, then it's not gonna work for the big picture. So.

The good examples are where you've got a strong CIO or CTO and they are controlling the whole thing and making sure everything is working like a fully tuned orchestra.

Julie Bishop (21:24)
Because we're definitely as customers of these hotels, we're trusting you with some quite intimate data, aren't you? You've got  financial data, you've got our personal data, but you've also got some of our preferences data and family relationship data and all sorts of information about us that we wouldn't want to be shared. So there's a high level of trust between a guest and a hotel when we give you our information.

Managing that information professionally is so important.

Jane Pendlebury (21:56)
Yes. And I think most people sort of GDPR, cybersecurity, they've mostly got that right. But as somebody once said to me, it's probably not a, you can be as careful as you like, but there's still every chance that you will get some kind of damage through your, some cyber breakage somewhere in the system. So that's where you need good advice and people that are there giving you the best possible  up to date security software that there is available.

Julie Bishop (22:27)
it's vital that, yes, we manage that as well as managing the data to share in front, so that somebody dealing with me, I expect them to know about me. we all, if I check in, if I'm a member of a loyalty scheme and I check in to a hotel, I expect them to know who I am, I expect them to know my room preferences, I expect them to know all of that thing. And we need to...

Yeah, balance the two isn't it? It's balancing customer service with security can be quite a challenge at times I think for

Jane Pendlebury (23:01)
Yes, it can be because

as you say, it might be that if they always put a drink in your bedroom, they'll know that you want a gin and tonic or a bottle of wine or whatever it might be. But you don't necessarily want everyone to know that. So, yeah, from a security point of view, that's crucial, but also a training point of view, because if it's all very well, if they've got that data saying what you would like or the fact that you don't want your aircon on, whatever it might be, if that's not implemented at the sharp end, then it's pointless as well, keeping that data secure.

Julie Bishop (23:09)
It would be a thing. You're right.

Yes.

Jane Pendlebury (23:29)
But making it accessible for those that actually need to know those preferences and implement them for you. So it's no easy job being a hospitality CTO or probably any CTO. And I often think that they'll be responsible for the fact that a printer's got jammed and then the next day they're responsible for a ransom demand or something. It goes from one extreme to the other and it always falls on the same people's shoulders.

Julie Bishop (23:55)
And while I've got you here and you've got so much experience, I'm going to ask you, what do you think is a hospitality trend that's going to really grow over the next few years? How's it going to be different in the next few years?

Jane Pendlebury (24:10)
Yeah, I

think it's this, I almost kind of find the word irritating, but experiential. It is that that's going to make one hotel stand out from another. So the hotel that is actually going to help you have a great experience

that can depend again on who you are, whether you're the business person one day or the family member the following weekend, it can vary. But I think that

giving people a whole experience and maybe that local knowledge, community, local suppliers serving the food in the restaurant, that sort of thing. The meat being sourced locally or the vegetables being sourced locally and then the staff being sourced locally. I think it's things like that that are already there and you already see them and people go back time and time again to venues like that.

Julie Bishop (25:01)


I can see that and I've seen over the last few years more of a sense of fun sometimes in hotels particularly in the lower cost hotels that seems to be yeah a little bit more playful than they used to be which I'm quite enjoying.

Jane Pendlebury (25:16)
Yes, no, that's a really good point. Yes, I'm glad that that's true. And I hope that continues to grow as well because it doesn't need to be stuffy, does it? So long as you're doing the stuff properly with the right controls in place, then a big smiley welcoming face that's full of fun is just the icing on the cake, really.

Julie Bishop (25:37)
Brilliant, so thank you so much for joining

I think one of my main takeaways from today is that technology and hospitality is not about getting rid of people, not replacing people, it's about enhancing the information that they have and what they can do to give them a better experience. So you're going to be able to find out more about HOSPA and connect with Jane on LinkedIn via some links that will be in the show notes at the bottom of this.

Thank you very much, Jane. Thank you.

Jane Pendlebury (26:05)
Thank you Julie, what a pleasure talking to you. Thank you very much.